From mourning to environmentalism: a Sicilian controversy about children's deaths, political apathy and leukemia

This article details the social construction of the 'swiftlet farming' industry in George Town, Malaysia. It argues that narratives of health and disease continually police which landscape practices are acceptable for the increasingly globalizing and image conscious city. 'Swiftlet farming' refers to the use of inner city shophouses and other commercial buildings for harvesting the edible nests of swiftlets (constructed from their saliva). Due to the high global demand and prices for birds' nests, the number of swiftlet farms have exploded in cities and towns across the country over the past decade, as entrepreneurs have been trying to cash in on the lucrative industry. The competing discourses and reactions to swiftlet farming in George Town, particularly in relation to its alleged potential for causing outbreaks of disease such as avian flu or dengue fever offer an apt entry point for studying this contested normative landscape. In doing so, I draw on recent writing on landscape and political ecology to analyze how swiftlet farm(er)s have been politicized by various stakeholders as (in)appropriate for the urban landscape. The article concludes by considering the significance of such an approach can help to make sense of the contradictions and uncertainties that abound in urban health controversies. Key words: political ecology, health, disease, landscape, birds' nest, Malaysia RésuméCet article détaille la construction sociale de l'industrie «de l'élevage de salanganes» 'à George Town, Malaisie. Elle fait valoir que les récits de la santé et de la maladie déterminent en permanence ce qui est acceptable pour le paysage urbain d'une plus globalisante et consciente de son image. «De l'élevage de salanganes» fait référence à l'utilisation de shophouses du centre-ville et d'autres bâtiments commerciaux pour la récolte des nids comestibles de salanganes (construit à partir de leur salive). En raison de la demande mondiale et des prix élevés pour les nids d'oiseaux, le nombre de fermes de salanganes ont explosé dans les villes et villages à travers le pays au cours de la dernière décennie, que les entrepreneurs ont tenté de tirer profit de l'industrie lucrative. Les discours et les réactions concurrentes de l'élevage de salanganes à George Town, en particulier par rapport à son présumé potentiel de causer des épidémies de maladies telles que la grippe aviaire ou la fièvre de la dengue, sont d'un intérêt pour cette étude d'un «paysage normatif contesté». Je l'utilise «l'écologie du paysage politique» pour analyser la façon dont les exploitations de salanganes et leurs propriétaires ont été politisé par différentes parties et prenantes (in)appropriée pour le paysage urbain. L'article conclut en considérant l'importance d'une telle approche peut aider à donner un sens aux contradictions et des incertitudes qui abondent dans les controverses de santé en milieu urbain. Mots clés: écologie politique, la santé, la maladie, le paysage, le nid d'oiseaux, Malaisie ResumenEste artículo detalla la construcción social de...

Section: Discussion: 'Matters Of Fact' Versus 'Matters Of Concern'mentioning

confidence: 99%

"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia

Connolly¹

2017

“…Accordingly, a new wave of scholars are now beginning to recognize the increasing usefulness of PE as a general framework for studying issues of health, while suggesting more specific avenues through which the field can be further developed (see Carney 2014;Jackson and Neely 2014;King 2010;Mangiameli 2013;Parizeau 2015). Along these lines, attention has been brought to bodily expressions, the perceptions and meanings surrounding them, and the social/political embeddedness of individual and collective bodies as crucial elements in environmental conflicts.…”

Section: Tracing the Role Of Discourse In Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, King (2010) argued that political economic factors, socio-ecological considerations, and health discourses constitute equally important factors in shaping decision-making over health. Recent work in PE has begun to explore the role of health discourses and environmental factors in shaping disease (Huff 2014;Mangiameli 2013). Jackson and Neely (2014) suggested incorporating insights from science and technology studies and the history of medicine to explore the role of partial and situated knowledges and more-than-human dimensions of health and disease, and using critical feminist approaches.…”

Section: Journal Of Political Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing narratives and perceptions in the political ecologies of health and disease

Connolly

Kotsila

D’Alisa

2017

Political ecology has, in the past decade, emerged as an increasingly accepted framework for studying issues of health and disease and has thus given rise to a distinct sub-field: the political ecologies of health and disease (PEHD). More recently, scholars have suggested more specific avenues through which the sub-field can be further developed and focused. Building on recent work, we suggest that the role of health perceptions and health discourses is one area that could benefit from examination through the lens of political ecology. The papers in this special section thus intend to further contribute to the empirical richness of this area of study, through an emphasis on anthropological and cultural aspects of health injustices. We emphasize the role of health perceptions, in particular, as a way of exploring how people's experiences of the local environment often differ from dominant discourses related to un/healthy environments, and the effects stemming from this disjuncture. Keywords: Political ecology of health, disease, perceptions, discourse, ethnography, environmental justice RésuméAu cours de la dernière décennie, l'écologie politique a émergé comme cadre analytique de plus en plus courant pour étudier des questions de santé et de maladie, jusqu'à devenir un sous-domaine à part entière: l'écologie politique de santé et de maladies. Plus récemment, certains chercheurs ont suggéré des pistes plus spécifiques permettant de développer et orienter ce sous-domaine. A partir de travaux récents, nous suggérons que le rôle de perceptions de la santé et de discours sur la santé constitue un champ qui pourrait gagner à être analysé par le biais de l'écologie politique. Les articles dans cette section visent donc à contribuer à la richesse empirique de ce champ de recherche, en mettant l'accent sur les aspects anthropologiques et culturels d'injustices de santé. Nous soulignons le rôle des perceptions de la santé, en particulier, comme manière d'explorer comment les expériences populaires de l'environnement local souvent divergent des discours dominants sur des environnements sains/malsains, et les effets de cette divergence.

“…The second contribution by Gaetano Mangiameli (2013) analyses multiple discourses around the emergence of leukemia in a Sicilian regional town and shows that this disease not only has a political dimension, but 'is a socio-political disease' in the sense that it stems from political apathy. The discourse around leukemia evokes practices that are conceivable only in a context where the local community, concerned about a leukemia cluster, reallocates power to other actors or institutions, namely the State, first of all, and, at the same time, it renounces the need to exert control over such actors.…”

Section: In This Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: beyond anthropocentrism, changing practices and the politics of 'nature'

Koensler

Papa

2013

In this introduction to a Special Section, we outline three recent interrelated research tendencies with regard to how to understand the practices and politics of 'nature': 1) a major attention towards non-anthropocentric environmental ideologies; 2) more complex analyses of environmental movements; and finally, 3) attention to unconventional every-day practices of environmental justice. In all three tendencies, we argue, a renewed attention to socio-economic power relations of the wider context becomes crucial for a better understanding of environmental dynamics. Ethnographically engaged studies from the European context offer examples of how it becomes possible to assess the impact of new grass-root practices, to pay attention to good micropractices, and understand the unexpected outcomes of the engagement with nature.Key words: Environmentalism, social movements, power, conflict.