The Toxic University

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The Toxic University

Author : John Smyth
Publisher : Springer
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017-06-23
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781137549686

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The Toxic University by John Smyth Pdf

This book considers the detrimental changes that have occurred to the institution of the university, as a result of the withdrawal of state funding and the imposition of neoliberal market reforms on higher education. It argues that universities have lost their way, and are currently drowning in an impenetrable mush of economic babble, spurious spin-offs of zombie economics, management-speak and militaristic-corporate jargon. John Smyth provides a trenchant and excoriating analysis of how universities have enveloped themselves in synthetic and meaningless marketing hype, and explains what this has done to academic work and the culture of universities – specifically, how it has degraded higher education and exacerbated social inequalities among both staff and students. Finally, the book explores how we might commence a reclamation. It should be essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, and anyone interested in the current state of university management.

The Wild and the Toxic

Author : Jennifer Thomson
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-03-27
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781469651651

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The Wild and the Toxic by Jennifer Thomson Pdf

Health figures centrally in late twentieth-century environmental activism. There are many competing claims about the health of ecosystems, the health of the planet, and the health of humans, yet there is little agreement among the likes of D.C. lobbyists, grassroots organizers, eco-anarchist collectives, and science-based advocacy organizations about whose health matters most, or what health even means. In this book, Jennifer Thomson untangles the complex web of political, social, and intellectual developments that gave rise to the multiplicity of claims and concerns about environmental health. Thomson traces four strands of activism from the 1970s to the present: the environmental lobby, environmental justice groups, radical environmentalism and bioregionalism, and climate justice activism. By focusing on health, environmentalists were empowered to intervene in the rise of neoliberalism, the erosion of the regulatory state, and the decimation of mass-based progressive politics. Yet, as this book reveals, an individualist definition of health ultimately won out over more communal understandings. Considering this turn from collective solidarity toward individual health helps explain the near paralysis of collective action in the face of planetary disaster.

Inevitably Toxic

Author : Brinda Sarathy,Vivien Hamilton,Janet Farrell Brodie
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2018-10-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780822986232

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Inevitably Toxic by Brinda Sarathy,Vivien Hamilton,Janet Farrell Brodie Pdf

Not a day goes by that humans aren’t exposed to toxins in our environment—be it at home, in the car, or workplace. But what about those toxic places and items that aren’t marked? Why are we warned about some toxic spaces' substances and not others? The essays in Inevitably Toxic consider the exposure of bodies in the United States, Canada and Japan to radiation, industrial waste, and pesticides. Research shows that appeals to uncertainty have led to social inaction even when evidence, e.g. the link between carbon emissions and global warming, stares us in the face. In some cases, influential scientists, engineers and doctors have deliberately "manufactured doubt" and uncertainty but as the essays in this collection show, there is often no deliberate deception. We tend to think that if we can’t see contamination and experts deem it safe, then we are okay. Yet, having knowledge about the uncertainty behind expert claims can awaken us from a false sense of security and alert us to decisions and practices that may in fact cause harm.

Dark Academia

Author : Peter Fleming
Publisher : Pluto Press (UK)
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-20
Category : Neoliberalism
ISBN : 0745341063

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Dark Academia by Peter Fleming Pdf

The unspoken, private and emotional underbelly of the neoliberal university

Toxic Safety

Author : Alissa Cordner
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780231541381

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Toxic Safety by Alissa Cordner Pdf

Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The tactics of each side have far-reaching consequences for how we interpret new scientific discoveries. An experienced environmental sociologist, Alissa Cordner conducts more than a hundred interviews with activists, scientists, regulators, and industry professionals to isolate the social, scientific, economic, and political forces influencing environmental health policy today. Introducing "strategic science translation," she describes how stakeholders use scientific evidence to support nonscientific goals and construct "conceptual risk formulas" to shape risk assessment and the interpretation of empirical evidence. A revelatory text for public-health advocates, Toxic Safety demonstrates that while all parties interested in health issues use science to support their claims, they do not compete on a level playing field and even good intentions can have deleterious effects.

Toxic Airs

Author : James Rodger Fleming,Ann Johnson
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2014-03-23
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780822979524

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Toxic Airs by James Rodger Fleming,Ann Johnson Pdf

Toxic Airs brings together historians of medicine, environmental historians, historians of science and technology, and interdisciplinary scholars to address atmospheric issues on a spectrum of scales from body to place to planet. The chapters analyze airborne and atmospheric threats posed to humans, and contributors demonstrate how conceptions of toxicity have evolved and how humans have both created and mitigated toxins in the air. Specific topics discussed include medieval beliefs in the pestilent breath of witches, malarial theory in India, domestic and military use of tear gas, Gulf War Syndrome, Los Angeles smog, automotive emissions control, the epidemiological effects of air pollution, transboundary air pollution, ozone depletion, the contributions of contemporary artists to climate awareness, and the toxic history of carbon “die”-oxide. Overall, the essays provide a wide-ranging historical study of interest to students and scholars of many disciplines.

The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games

Author : Christopher A. Paul
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Merit (Ethics)
ISBN : 1517900409

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The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games by Christopher A. Paul Pdf

An avid gamer and sharp media critic explains meritocracy's negative contribution to video game culture--and what can be done about it Video games have brought entertainment, education, and innovation to millions, but gaming also has its dark sides. From the deep-bred misogyny epitomized by GamerGate to the endemic malice of abusive player communities, gamer culture has had serious real-world repercussions, ranging from death threats to sexist industry practices and racist condemnations. In The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games, new media critic and longtime gamer Christopher A. Paul explains how video games' focus on meritocracy empowers this negative culture. Paul first shows why meritocracy is integral to video-game design, narratives, and values. Games typically valorize skill and technique, and common video-game practices (such as leveling) build meritocratic thinking into the most basic premises. Video games are often assumed to have an even playing field, but they facilitate skill transfer from game to game, allowing certain players a built-in advantage. The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games identifies deep-seated challenges in the culture of video games--but all is not lost. As Paul argues, similarly meritocratic institutions like professional sports and higher education have found powerful remedies to alleviate their own toxic cultures, including active recruiting and strategies that promote values such as contingency, luck, and serendipity. These can be brought to the gamer universe, Paul contends, ultimately fostering a more diverse, accepting, and self-reflective culture that is not only good for gamers but good for video games as well.

The Way Out

Author : Peter T. Coleman
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 453 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2021-06-01
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780231552158

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The Way Out by Peter T. Coleman Pdf

The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too—and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems? The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.

Toxic Debt

Author : Josiah Rector
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 345 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2022-02-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469665771

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Toxic Debt by Josiah Rector Pdf

From the mid-nineteenth until the mid-twentieth century, environmentally unregulated industrial capitalism produced outsized environmental risks for poor and working-class Detroiters, made all the worse for African Americans by housing and job discrimination. Then as the auto industry abandoned Detroit, the banking and real estate industries turned those risks into disasters with predatory loans to African American homebuyers, and to an increasingly indebted city government. Following years of cuts in welfare assistance to poor families and a devastating subprime mortgage meltdown, the state of Michigan used municipal debt to justify suspending democracy in majority-Black cities. In Detroit and Flint, austerity policies imposed under emergency financial management deprived hundreds of thousands of people of clean water, with lethal consequences that most recently exacerbated the spread of COVID-19. Toxic Debt is not only a book about racism, capitalism, and the making of these environmental disasters. It is also a history of Detroit's environmental justice movement, which emerged from over a century of battles over public health in the city and involved radical auto workers, ecofeminists, and working-class women fighting for clean water. Linking the histories of urban political economy, the environment, and social movements, Toxic Debt lucidly narrates the story of debt, environmental disaster, and resistance in Detroit.

Toxic Masculinity

Author : Esther De Dauw,Daniel J. Connell
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2020-08-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781496828958

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Toxic Masculinity by Esther De Dauw,Daniel J. Connell Pdf

Contributions by Daniel J. Connell, Esther De Dauw, Craig Haslop, Drew Murphy, Richard Reynolds, Janne Salminen, Karen Sugrue, and James C. Taylor The superhero permeates popular culture from comic books to film and television to internet memes, merchandise, and street art. Toxic Masculinity: Mapping the Monstrous in Our Heroes asks what kind of men these heroes are and if they are worthy of the unbalanced amount of attention. Contributors to the volume investigate how the (super)hero in popular culture conveys messages about heroism and masculinity, considering the social implications of this narrative within a cultural (re)production of dominant, hegemonic values and the possibility of subaltern ideas, norms, and values to be imagined within that (re)production. Divided into three sections, the volume takes an interdisciplinary approach, positioning the impact of hypermasculinity on toxic masculinity and the vilification of “other” identities through such mediums as film, TV, and print comic book literature. The first part, “Understanding Super Men,” analyzes hegemonic masculinity and the spectrum of hypermasculinity through comics, television, and film, while the second part, “The Monstrous Other,” focuses on queer identity and femininity in these same mediums. The final section, “Strategies of Resistance,” offers criticism and solutions to the existing lack of diversity through targeted studies on the performance of gender. Ultimately, the volume identifies the ways in which superhero narratives have promulgated and glorified toxic masculinity and offers alternative strategies to consider how characters can resist the hegemonic model and productively demonstrate new masculinities.

Toxic Truths

Author : Thom Davies,Alice Mah
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2020-06-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 152613702X

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Toxic Truths by Thom Davies,Alice Mah Pdf

Post-truth politics have threatened science itself. Drawing on case studies from around the world, Toxic Truths examines enduring issues and new challenges for tackling environmental injustice in a post-truth age.

Toxic Town

Author : Peter C. Little
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2014-03-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780814770641

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Toxic Town by Peter C. Little Pdf

Shows the risks of high-tech pollution through a study of an IBM plant's effects on a New York town In 1924, IBM built its first plant in Endicott, New York. Now, Endicott is a contested toxic waste site. With its landscape thoroughly contaminated by carcinogens, Endicott is the subject of one of the nation’s largest corporate-state mitigation efforts. Yet despite the efforts of IBM and the U.S. government, Endicott residents remain skeptical that the mitigation systems employed were designed with their best interests at heart. In Toxic Town, Peter C. Little tracks and critically diagnoses the experiences of Endicott residents as they learn to live with high-tech pollution, community transformation, scientific expertise, corporate-state power, and risk mitigation technologies. By weaving together the insights of anthropology, political ecology, disaster studies, and science and technology studies, the book explores questions of theoretical and practical import for understanding the politics of risk and the ironies of technological disaster response in a time when IBM’s stated mission is to build a “Smarter Planet.” Little critically reflects on IBM’s new corporate tagline, arguing for a political ecology of corporate social and environmental responsibility and accountability that places the social and environmental politics of risk mitigation front and center. Ultimately, Little argues that we will need much more than hollow corporate taglines, claims of corporate responsibility, and attempts to mitigate high-tech disasters to truly build a smarter planet.

No Safe Place

Author : Phil Brown,Edwin J. Mikkelsen
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780520212480

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No Safe Place by Phil Brown,Edwin J. Mikkelsen Pdf

"An excellent and readable account of the toxic waste crisis in Woburn, Massachusetts, and the courageous efforts by local citizens to protect their community. The Woburn story is an inspiring lesson for citizens across the country struggling to protect the environment from polluters and unresponsive government officials."—Senator Edward Kennedy

Toxic Communities

Author : Dorceta E. Taylor
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781479805150

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Toxic Communities by Dorceta E. Taylor Pdf

From St. Louis to New Orleans, from Baltimore to Oklahoma City, there are poor and minority neighborhoods so beset by pollution that just living in them can be hazardous to your health. Due to entrenched segregation, zoning ordinances that privilege wealthier communities, or because businesses have found the OCypaths of least resistance, OCO there are many hazardous waste and toxic facilities in these communities, leading residents to experience health and wellness problems on top of the race and class discrimination most already experience. Taking stock of the recent environmental justice scholarship, a Toxic Communities aexamines the connections among residential segregation, zoning, and exposure to environmental hazards. Renowned environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor focuses on the locations of hazardous facilities in low-income and minority communities and shows how they have been dumped on, contaminated and exposed. Drawing on an array of historical and contemporary case studies from across the country, Taylor explores controversies over racially-motivated decisions in zoning laws, eminent domain, government regulation (or lack thereof), and urban renewal. She provides a comprehensive overview of the debate over whether or not there is a link between environmental transgressions and discrimination, drawing a clear picture of the state of the environmental justice field today and where it is going. In doing so, she introduces new concepts and theories for understanding environmental racism that will be essential for environmental justice scholars. A fascinating landmark study, a Toxic Communities agreatly contributes to the study of race, the environment, and space in the contemporary United States."

Toxic Archipelago

Author : Brett L. Walker
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2011-07-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780295803012

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Toxic Archipelago by Brett L. Walker Pdf

Every person on the planet is entangled in a web of ecological relationships that link farms and factories with human consumers. Our lives depend on these relationships -- and are imperiled by them as well. Nowhere is this truer than on the Japanese archipelago. During the nineteenth century, Japan saw the rise of Homo sapiens industrialis, a new breed of human transformed by an engineered, industrialized, and poisonous environment. Toxins moved freely from mines, factory sites, and rice paddies into human bodies. Toxic Archipelago explores how toxic pollution works its way into porous human bodies and brings unimaginable pain to some of them. Brett Walker examines startling case studies of industrial toxins that know no boundaries: deaths from insecticide contaminations; poisonings from copper, zinc, and lead mining; congenital deformities from methylmercury factory effluents; and lung diseases from sulfur dioxide and asbestos. This powerful, probing book demonstrates how the Japanese archipelago has become industrialized over the last two hundred years -- and how people and the environment have suffered as a consequence.