Alice Mah | University of Glasgow (original) (raw)

Papers by Alice Mah

Environment and Planning C, 2022

This article introduces the concept of "noxious deindustrialization"-employment deindustrializati... more This article introduces the concept of "noxious deindustrialization"-employment deindustrialization in areas where significantly noxious industries are still operating-and explores some implications of this paradox by studying community-industry relations in the Scottish petrochemical town of Grangemouth. In the heyday of "Boomtown Grangemouth" during the first three decades after World War II, there existed an implicit social contract between the local industry and community in which male fenceline residents had widespread access to secure and well-paid employment in the factories, but the community had to accept the related pollution and hazards. This social contract gradually declined since the late 1970s due to a combination of automation, rising qualification barriers and associated long-range recruiting, and outsourcing to a partially itinerant workforce. For the Grangemouth community, this trend led to the current situation of employment deindustrialization coupled with the continuing exposure to the socioenvironmental damage and hazards engendered by operating petrochemical plants. We argue that noxious deindustrialization-with its dystopian corollaries of rising inequality and precarity, cumulative environmental degradation, and loosening community ties-is happening both globally and in local areas and that Grangemouth is a dramatic example of noxious deindustrialization on a local level, where the phenomenon has put a strain on community-industry relations.

Environment and Planning E, 2021

Around the world, people living close to polluting industries have different perceptions of the r... more Around the world, people living close to polluting industries have different perceptions of the risks of toxic exposure, ranging from anger to acceptance to denial. We draw attention to a case with relatively high levels of social trust, but also relatively high levels of risk perception: the communities living adjacent to the Fawley (UK) oil refinery and petrochemical complex, a site that has been operated by Esso since the early 1950s. Our findings are based on a novel comparative analysis of two qualitative studies of local risk perceptions in Fawley conducted more than two decades apart in 1997 and 2019, incorporating focus group and individual interviews with residents, alongside documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews. Perceptions of risk and trust in the local polluting industry have fluctuated over the years, with unease never far from the surface as industrial employment has slowly contracted. Yet overall, the picture in 2019 was not too dissimilar from that in 1997: while community-industry relations were strained amidst periodic risk incidents and a sense of decline, a cautious sense of trust in the polluting enterprise had endured, based on a delicate balance of heritage, risk, and recognition. We draw attention to the residents' careful reckoning with risks over time and the tenacity of social trust as an act of negotiation that took risk into account but also included other important factors such as recognition and reciprocity. Local risk perceptions in Fawley are closely bound up with the residents' shared industrial heritage and enduring perceptions of Esso as a 'good neighbour'. Our longitudinal analysis allowed us to reflect on changes over time in Fawley, providing greater temporal depth to the risk perception literature.

Stato e Mercato, 2021

In the throes of unfolding climate disaster, we are at a planetary crossroads of profound industr... more In the throes of unfolding climate disaster, we are at a planetary crossroads of profound industrial transformation. This paper argues that tackling the problem of unsustainable growth is crucial in order to mitigate the worst effects of the ecological crisis, and that proposals for decarbonisation, degrowth, and just transitions should be connected. Decarbonisation has become an urgent priority in the global climate race to reach zero emissions by 2050. However, despite increasing net zero pledges from governments, cities, and corporations, the imperative for perpetual economic growth still remains integral to global capitalism. The degrowth movement challenges the dominant paradigm of economic growth and promotes non-marketized ways of living and working, but it remains outside of mainstream economic policies and has little resonance for deindustrialized and marginalized communities. Decarbonisation faces considerable barriers due to embedded interests in fossil fuel-dependent growth. This paper examines one of the key
growth obstacles to transitioning away from fossil fuels: the multiscalar problem of petrochemical lock-in, related to growing global demand for carbon-intensive plastics consumption, the use of petrochemicals in green technologies, and regional and local economic dependencies. It focuses
on the emblematic case of the petrochemical town of Grangemouth in Scotland, where there is government pressure to pursue growth-led decarbonisation, and local residents and workers have started to question their dependence on fossil fuels, amidst tremendous gaps between local social and economic deprivation and petrochemical industry profits. Rather than considering the need for just transitions only after the loss of industrial jobs, visions for just petrochemical transformations need to be more proactive, speaking to wider degrowth themes of well-being, community participation, and prosperity without extractive growth.

Global Environmental Politics, 2021

The marine plastics crisis sparked a wave of corporate interest in the circular economy, a sustai... more The marine plastics crisis sparked a wave of corporate interest in the circular economy, a sustainable business model that aims to eliminate waste in industrial systems through re- cycling, reduction, reuse, and recovery. Drawing on debates about the role of corporations in global environmental governance, this article examines the rise of the circular economy as a dominant corporate sustainability concept, focusing on the flagship example of the circular economy for plastics. It argues that corporations across the plastics value chain have coordinated their efforts to contain the circular economy policy agenda, while extend- ing their markets through developing risky circular economy technologies. These corporate strategies of containment and proliferation represent attempts to “future-proof” capitalism against existential threats to public legitimacy, masking the implications for environ- mental justice. The paradox of the circular economy is that it seems to offer radical challenges to linear “take-make-waste” models of industrial capitalism, backed by international legislation, but it does not actually give up on unsustainable growth. We need to tackle the plastics crisis at its root, dramatically reducing the global production of toxic and wasteful plastics.

Economic Geography, 2020

The global petrochemical industry has long been characterized by stable patterns of Western corpo... more The global petrochemical industry has long been characterized by stable patterns of Western corporate and geographic leadership, but since the early 2000s, the global playing field has changed significantly. China has overtaken the US and Europe as the world’s largest petrochemical producer, and other emerging economies have become global petrochemical players. Combining insights from scholarship on global corporate elites, world city networks, and relational economic geography, this article examines patterns in the corporate networks of leading petrochemical corporations. The research is based on a multiscalar corporate network analysis, applying social network analysis to identify board interlocks, joint venture interlocks, and spatial interlocks between corporations. Through analyzing corporate networks across multiple scales, the research reveals patterns of both integration and isolation within the petrochemical industry. Isolation is evident in disconnected regional corporate elite networks, where the established North Atlantic corporate elite is interconnected through board interlocks, while corporate networks in Asia and other emerging economies remain disconnected. However, high levels of integration within the industry are also evident in an interconnected international company system formed through joint venture collaborations and in overlapping subsidiary networks centered on petrochemical hubs around the world. The article argues that the results demonstrate a combination of resilience and change, or path dependence and contingency, in patterns of corporate power and collaboration. Western company networks still form the social and spatial backbone of the industry, but these have been challenged by emerging strategic centers and isolated elite networks in other parts of the world. This article contributes to debates on industrial corporate elites, multiple globalizations, and the multipolar global economy.

Environment International, 2019

Background: Pollutants released from the petrochemical industry are thought to increase the risk ... more Background: Pollutants released from the petrochemical industry are thought to increase the risk of mortality in fence-line communities, yet the results from previous studies are often inconsistent and lack a global perspective, hampered by the absence of cohesive crosscountry research. Objectives: To provide the first Pan-European analysis of benzene exposures from the petrochemical industry, connecting polluting practices to pollution episodes and disparities in regional mortality rates, identifying the measures of best environmental practice to mitigate adverse outcomes. Methods: The activity, classification and location of onshore petrochemical facilities within EU-28 Member States were extracted from the 'European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register' (E-PRTR), which holds records on 31,753 industrial operations for the reporting period of 2007-15. Parent company records were collected from the Moody's Analytics Amadeus database of 487,338 active companies across Europe. The EUROSTAT census provided records of income, life expectancy, and the underlying demographics used to calculate stan-dardised health outcomes based on 9,936 sub-populations within the NUTS2 regions. The European Environment Agency provided ambient concentrations of benzene from 579 air quality stations. Bayesian multilevel models were constructed to account for variability caused by spatial hierarchical structures, uncertainty in the estimates, and to incorporate both individual and group-level influences. Results: Higher levels of benzene emissions from petrochemical operations, both overall and in terms of specific pollution events, were associated with increased mortality rates for nearby residential populations, particularly in areas with socioeconomic deprivation. We identify uneven patterns of polluting practices within the industry, and locations that require epidemiological studies. Conclusions: While petrochemical facilities in all European Union regions are regulated to be compliant with the annual average benzene limit of 5 μg/m 3 , uneven exposures still present regional health inequalities. We recommend extending benzene regulations to an hourly or daily limit, alongside the strengthening of regulation for other toxic petrochemical releases.

In recent years, grassroots environmental justice activists have increasingly used big data techn... more In recent years, grassroots environmental justice activists have increasingly used big data techniques for monitoring, recording, and reporting toxic environmental exposures. Despite the promise of big data for environmental justice, there is a need to address structural barriers to making toxic environmental exposures visible, and to avoid over-relying on new digital methods and techniques as a panacea for problems of voice. The emphasis of real-time analysis in crowdsourced and participatory big data is good at tracking the immediate aftermath of environmental disasters, but it misses slower-burning environmental problems that emerge over time. While big data more generally may have implications for understanding toxic exposure landscapes across different temporal and spatial scales, it is complex, difficult to analyze, and faces significant problems of reliability. There are three key blind spots of the ethos and practice of big data in relation to environmental justice: voice, speed, and expertise. In the context of increasing pressure to embrace new tools and technologies, it is also important to slow down and to reflect on the wider implications of the age of big data.

Dereliction tourism is the act of seeking out abandoned industrial sites as sites of aesthetic pl... more Dereliction tourism is the act of seeking out abandoned industrial sites as sites of aesthetic pleasure, leisure or adventure. Drawing on research in areas of industrial ruination in Russia, the UK and North America, this article examines the role of the ‘dereliction tourist’ as a way of critically reflecting on the ethics of ‘outsider’ research. Ethical problems are associated with both dereliction tourism and ethnographic research in areas of industrial decline, including voyeurism, romanticization, and the reproduction of negative stereotypes about marginal people and places. However, both dereliction tourism and ethnographic research also share more positive ethical possibilities through offering alternative ways of imagining places and raising social justice awareness of issues related to deprivation and blight. Through considering the ambivalent figure of the dereliction tourist in relation to ethnography, this article advances a way of being in the research field through intrinsic ethical reflection and practice.

Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant... more Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant communities, and international trade networks. This in-depth comparative study examines contradictory global legacies across themes of urban identity, waterfront work and radicalism in key post-industrial port cities worldwide.

Reviews:

“Here is a book likely to delight sociologists and historians as well as specialists in urban studies, i.e. those open to the intellectual adventures entailed by the criss-crossing of disciplines; a book to be placed in the hands of postgraduate and indeed doctoral students willing to enrich their thinking repertoire; a book that might even appeal to the general reader, as it is full of references to popular culture, from Neil Young to the TV series Treme.” (Yann Béliard, Urban Studies, Vol. 53 (1), January, 2016)

“In this compelling study of three port cities, Mah attempts to trace the global legacy of dockworkers’ trade union movements. … this is a thought-provoking study. … for the reader who wants a snapshot of current conditions in these three port cities, this book is good place to start.” (Colin Davis, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 27 (4), November, 2015)

"What becomes of once-preeminent world harbors when a new global age relegates them to the minor leagues of seaports? In this rich and imaginative joining of Liverpool, Marseille, and New Orleans, two mere shadows of their former glories, a third a troubled giant, Alice Mah ranges across waterfront developments, museum projects, crime stories, and traditions of radical action to capture their quest for a return to greatness amidst the need to confront a conflicted past and a dubious future." - Michael B. Miller, Professor of History, University of Miami, USA

"Transformation along waterfronts in port cities has been analysed through many case studies. This book offers a new comparative and cross-disciplinary approach. It focuses on how labour can create a specific port identity and provide new perspectives of transformation, which can include heritage for developing a more modern image for port cities in the future." - Dirk Schubert, Professor of Urban Planning, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany

"Alice Mah's sensitively written and deftly researched study explores Liverpool, Marseille and New Orleans as these port cities of 'the first global age' face the complex challenges of redevelopment, restructuring and recovery. Moving between the realms of cultural representation, histories of labour solidarity and struggle, and contested futures, the book traces the tangled lines that lead from legacies of empire, colonialism and slavery, through decline and ruination to a new urban politics of hope." - Fran Tonkiss, Director, Cities Programme, London School of Economics, UK

Abandoned factories, shipyards, warehouses, and refineries are features of many industrialized ci... more Abandoned factories, shipyards, warehouses, and refineries are features of many industrialized cities around the world. But despite their state of decline, these derelict sites remain vitally connected with the urban landscapes that surround them. In this enlightening new book, Alice Mah explores the experiences of urban decline and post-industrial change in three different community contexts: Niagara Falls, Canada/USA; Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; and Ivanovo, Russia.

Employing a unique methodological approach that combines ethnographic, spatial, and documentary methods, Mah draws on international comparisons of the landscapes and legacies of industrial ruination over the past forty years. Through this, she foregrounds the complex challenges of living with prolonged uncertainty and deprivation amidst socioeconomic change. This rich comparative study makes an essential contribution to far-reaching debates about the decline of manufacturing, regeneration, and identity, and will have important implications for urban theory and policy.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2010

This article examines how local people's memories relate to processes of industrial decline and r... more This article examines how local people's memories relate to processes of industrial decline and ruination in Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne, based on site observations and 30 semi-structured interviews conducted between June 2005 and March 2006, with a range of local people. Much of the recent literature concerning the relationships between memory and place focuses on the contrast between social reconstructions of official and unofficial collective memory. This article explores a different dynamic between memory and place through the case study of Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, an area where shipbuilding has long been in decline, but at the time of interviewing, the ‘last shipyard of the Tyne’ had yet to close. In Walker, local accounts of the industrial past represent ‘living memories’, embodying complex relationships with the industrial past: many people who have lived through processes of industrial ruination focus on imminent regeneration rather than mourning or celebrating the industrial past. The strength of community solidarity in Walker represents another form of living memory, echoing family and community bonds formed in the industrial era despite the fact that a direct connection with shipbuilding has all but disappeared. This article argues that living memories relate to the particular social and economic processes of industrial ruination in Walker, where the decline of shipbuilding over the past 30 years has been protracted, leaving a profound sense of uncertainty for people who occupy the precarious transitional spaces of post-industrial change.

Sociology

This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunit... more This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunities for social participation and that social and economic rights are integral to any discussion of the subject. We offer both a social constructionist and a normative framework for a sociology of human rights which reaches beyond liberal individualism, combining insights from the work of Amartya Sen and from French convention theory. Following Sen, we argue that human rights are founded on the promotion of human capabilities as ethical demands shaped by public reasoning. Using French convention theory, we show how the terms of such deliberation are shaped by different constructions of collectively held values and the compromises reached between them. We conclude by demonstrating how our approach offers a new perspective on spheres of public action and the role these should play in promoting social cohesion, individual capabilities and human rights.

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2012

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2009

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the justifying arguments of various Birmingham ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the justifying arguments of various Birmingham organisations between 1870 and 1914 in classifying and treating the unemployed. Using a capability approach, the paper will examine how employment policies in Birmingham during this period promoted or limited capabilities of work, life and voice. Finally, implications for labour market policies today will be discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical framework for this paper will draw on the capability approach to a person's well-being, developed by Amartya Sen and on theoretical and empirical developments of the capability approach by other authors such as Bonvin and Salais. This paper is based on historical archival research and analysis. Findings – Birmingham was an exemplar of municipal social reform in late nineteenth century England, with the development of a range of public services such as education, electricity and public transport. However, the city's vision of civic reform was closely connected to the Liberal market logic of individual responsibility, and moral judgements of the unemployed served to multiply the categories and punitive treatments of the “undeserving”, separating the valid from the invalid citizen. Originality/value – This case study of municipal employment policies in Birmingham at the turn of the twentieth century demonstrates the implications of moral judgements, classifications and treatments of the unemployed for people's capabilities in work and life, drawing connections to discourses of responsibility and citizenship today.

Home Cultures, 2009

... be demolished, a home she had lived in for thirty-one years: “People there won't let me ... more ... be demolished, a home she had lived in for thirty-one years: “People there won't let me know when, how long's it gonna be before ... In an ethnography of young subcultures in North East England,Anoop Nayak (2003) analyzes “Geordie” identity through the lens of class and race. ...

British Journal of Management

While much of the literature on gender focuses on role models, this article extends the understan... more While much of the literature on gender focuses on role models, this article extends the understanding of gendered professional identification processes by exploring these processes through the lenses of idealization and admiration. Using the method of discourse analysis to analyse MBA students’ accounts of people who they identify with, this article explores discourses of idealization, defined as aggrandising a person, and of admiration, which means to discuss positive as well as negative and neutral characteristics of a person. We show firstly that most male and female MBA students idealised the self-made ‘authentic’ CEO or founder of an organization. Secondly, we found that women mainly admired other women through naming their positive, neutral and negative attributes. The article thereby adds to our understanding of how gendered identification processes are structured by idealization and admiration.

Environment and Planning C, 2022

This article introduces the concept of "noxious deindustrialization"-employment deindustrializati... more This article introduces the concept of "noxious deindustrialization"-employment deindustrialization in areas where significantly noxious industries are still operating-and explores some implications of this paradox by studying community-industry relations in the Scottish petrochemical town of Grangemouth. In the heyday of "Boomtown Grangemouth" during the first three decades after World War II, there existed an implicit social contract between the local industry and community in which male fenceline residents had widespread access to secure and well-paid employment in the factories, but the community had to accept the related pollution and hazards. This social contract gradually declined since the late 1970s due to a combination of automation, rising qualification barriers and associated long-range recruiting, and outsourcing to a partially itinerant workforce. For the Grangemouth community, this trend led to the current situation of employment deindustrialization coupled with the continuing exposure to the socioenvironmental damage and hazards engendered by operating petrochemical plants. We argue that noxious deindustrialization-with its dystopian corollaries of rising inequality and precarity, cumulative environmental degradation, and loosening community ties-is happening both globally and in local areas and that Grangemouth is a dramatic example of noxious deindustrialization on a local level, where the phenomenon has put a strain on community-industry relations.

Environment and Planning E, 2021

Around the world, people living close to polluting industries have different perceptions of the r... more Around the world, people living close to polluting industries have different perceptions of the risks of toxic exposure, ranging from anger to acceptance to denial. We draw attention to a case with relatively high levels of social trust, but also relatively high levels of risk perception: the communities living adjacent to the Fawley (UK) oil refinery and petrochemical complex, a site that has been operated by Esso since the early 1950s. Our findings are based on a novel comparative analysis of two qualitative studies of local risk perceptions in Fawley conducted more than two decades apart in 1997 and 2019, incorporating focus group and individual interviews with residents, alongside documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews. Perceptions of risk and trust in the local polluting industry have fluctuated over the years, with unease never far from the surface as industrial employment has slowly contracted. Yet overall, the picture in 2019 was not too dissimilar from that in 1997: while community-industry relations were strained amidst periodic risk incidents and a sense of decline, a cautious sense of trust in the polluting enterprise had endured, based on a delicate balance of heritage, risk, and recognition. We draw attention to the residents' careful reckoning with risks over time and the tenacity of social trust as an act of negotiation that took risk into account but also included other important factors such as recognition and reciprocity. Local risk perceptions in Fawley are closely bound up with the residents' shared industrial heritage and enduring perceptions of Esso as a 'good neighbour'. Our longitudinal analysis allowed us to reflect on changes over time in Fawley, providing greater temporal depth to the risk perception literature.

Stato e Mercato, 2021

In the throes of unfolding climate disaster, we are at a planetary crossroads of profound industr... more In the throes of unfolding climate disaster, we are at a planetary crossroads of profound industrial transformation. This paper argues that tackling the problem of unsustainable growth is crucial in order to mitigate the worst effects of the ecological crisis, and that proposals for decarbonisation, degrowth, and just transitions should be connected. Decarbonisation has become an urgent priority in the global climate race to reach zero emissions by 2050. However, despite increasing net zero pledges from governments, cities, and corporations, the imperative for perpetual economic growth still remains integral to global capitalism. The degrowth movement challenges the dominant paradigm of economic growth and promotes non-marketized ways of living and working, but it remains outside of mainstream economic policies and has little resonance for deindustrialized and marginalized communities. Decarbonisation faces considerable barriers due to embedded interests in fossil fuel-dependent growth. This paper examines one of the key
growth obstacles to transitioning away from fossil fuels: the multiscalar problem of petrochemical lock-in, related to growing global demand for carbon-intensive plastics consumption, the use of petrochemicals in green technologies, and regional and local economic dependencies. It focuses
on the emblematic case of the petrochemical town of Grangemouth in Scotland, where there is government pressure to pursue growth-led decarbonisation, and local residents and workers have started to question their dependence on fossil fuels, amidst tremendous gaps between local social and economic deprivation and petrochemical industry profits. Rather than considering the need for just transitions only after the loss of industrial jobs, visions for just petrochemical transformations need to be more proactive, speaking to wider degrowth themes of well-being, community participation, and prosperity without extractive growth.

Global Environmental Politics, 2021

The marine plastics crisis sparked a wave of corporate interest in the circular economy, a sustai... more The marine plastics crisis sparked a wave of corporate interest in the circular economy, a sustainable business model that aims to eliminate waste in industrial systems through re- cycling, reduction, reuse, and recovery. Drawing on debates about the role of corporations in global environmental governance, this article examines the rise of the circular economy as a dominant corporate sustainability concept, focusing on the flagship example of the circular economy for plastics. It argues that corporations across the plastics value chain have coordinated their efforts to contain the circular economy policy agenda, while extend- ing their markets through developing risky circular economy technologies. These corporate strategies of containment and proliferation represent attempts to “future-proof” capitalism against existential threats to public legitimacy, masking the implications for environ- mental justice. The paradox of the circular economy is that it seems to offer radical challenges to linear “take-make-waste” models of industrial capitalism, backed by international legislation, but it does not actually give up on unsustainable growth. We need to tackle the plastics crisis at its root, dramatically reducing the global production of toxic and wasteful plastics.

Economic Geography, 2020

The global petrochemical industry has long been characterized by stable patterns of Western corpo... more The global petrochemical industry has long been characterized by stable patterns of Western corporate and geographic leadership, but since the early 2000s, the global playing field has changed significantly. China has overtaken the US and Europe as the world’s largest petrochemical producer, and other emerging economies have become global petrochemical players. Combining insights from scholarship on global corporate elites, world city networks, and relational economic geography, this article examines patterns in the corporate networks of leading petrochemical corporations. The research is based on a multiscalar corporate network analysis, applying social network analysis to identify board interlocks, joint venture interlocks, and spatial interlocks between corporations. Through analyzing corporate networks across multiple scales, the research reveals patterns of both integration and isolation within the petrochemical industry. Isolation is evident in disconnected regional corporate elite networks, where the established North Atlantic corporate elite is interconnected through board interlocks, while corporate networks in Asia and other emerging economies remain disconnected. However, high levels of integration within the industry are also evident in an interconnected international company system formed through joint venture collaborations and in overlapping subsidiary networks centered on petrochemical hubs around the world. The article argues that the results demonstrate a combination of resilience and change, or path dependence and contingency, in patterns of corporate power and collaboration. Western company networks still form the social and spatial backbone of the industry, but these have been challenged by emerging strategic centers and isolated elite networks in other parts of the world. This article contributes to debates on industrial corporate elites, multiple globalizations, and the multipolar global economy.

Environment International, 2019

Background: Pollutants released from the petrochemical industry are thought to increase the risk ... more Background: Pollutants released from the petrochemical industry are thought to increase the risk of mortality in fence-line communities, yet the results from previous studies are often inconsistent and lack a global perspective, hampered by the absence of cohesive crosscountry research. Objectives: To provide the first Pan-European analysis of benzene exposures from the petrochemical industry, connecting polluting practices to pollution episodes and disparities in regional mortality rates, identifying the measures of best environmental practice to mitigate adverse outcomes. Methods: The activity, classification and location of onshore petrochemical facilities within EU-28 Member States were extracted from the 'European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register' (E-PRTR), which holds records on 31,753 industrial operations for the reporting period of 2007-15. Parent company records were collected from the Moody's Analytics Amadeus database of 487,338 active companies across Europe. The EUROSTAT census provided records of income, life expectancy, and the underlying demographics used to calculate stan-dardised health outcomes based on 9,936 sub-populations within the NUTS2 regions. The European Environment Agency provided ambient concentrations of benzene from 579 air quality stations. Bayesian multilevel models were constructed to account for variability caused by spatial hierarchical structures, uncertainty in the estimates, and to incorporate both individual and group-level influences. Results: Higher levels of benzene emissions from petrochemical operations, both overall and in terms of specific pollution events, were associated with increased mortality rates for nearby residential populations, particularly in areas with socioeconomic deprivation. We identify uneven patterns of polluting practices within the industry, and locations that require epidemiological studies. Conclusions: While petrochemical facilities in all European Union regions are regulated to be compliant with the annual average benzene limit of 5 μg/m 3 , uneven exposures still present regional health inequalities. We recommend extending benzene regulations to an hourly or daily limit, alongside the strengthening of regulation for other toxic petrochemical releases.

In recent years, grassroots environmental justice activists have increasingly used big data techn... more In recent years, grassroots environmental justice activists have increasingly used big data techniques for monitoring, recording, and reporting toxic environmental exposures. Despite the promise of big data for environmental justice, there is a need to address structural barriers to making toxic environmental exposures visible, and to avoid over-relying on new digital methods and techniques as a panacea for problems of voice. The emphasis of real-time analysis in crowdsourced and participatory big data is good at tracking the immediate aftermath of environmental disasters, but it misses slower-burning environmental problems that emerge over time. While big data more generally may have implications for understanding toxic exposure landscapes across different temporal and spatial scales, it is complex, difficult to analyze, and faces significant problems of reliability. There are three key blind spots of the ethos and practice of big data in relation to environmental justice: voice, speed, and expertise. In the context of increasing pressure to embrace new tools and technologies, it is also important to slow down and to reflect on the wider implications of the age of big data.

Dereliction tourism is the act of seeking out abandoned industrial sites as sites of aesthetic pl... more Dereliction tourism is the act of seeking out abandoned industrial sites as sites of aesthetic pleasure, leisure or adventure. Drawing on research in areas of industrial ruination in Russia, the UK and North America, this article examines the role of the ‘dereliction tourist’ as a way of critically reflecting on the ethics of ‘outsider’ research. Ethical problems are associated with both dereliction tourism and ethnographic research in areas of industrial decline, including voyeurism, romanticization, and the reproduction of negative stereotypes about marginal people and places. However, both dereliction tourism and ethnographic research also share more positive ethical possibilities through offering alternative ways of imagining places and raising social justice awareness of issues related to deprivation and blight. Through considering the ambivalent figure of the dereliction tourist in relation to ethnography, this article advances a way of being in the research field through intrinsic ethical reflection and practice.

Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant... more Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant communities, and international trade networks. This in-depth comparative study examines contradictory global legacies across themes of urban identity, waterfront work and radicalism in key post-industrial port cities worldwide.

Reviews:

“Here is a book likely to delight sociologists and historians as well as specialists in urban studies, i.e. those open to the intellectual adventures entailed by the criss-crossing of disciplines; a book to be placed in the hands of postgraduate and indeed doctoral students willing to enrich their thinking repertoire; a book that might even appeal to the general reader, as it is full of references to popular culture, from Neil Young to the TV series Treme.” (Yann Béliard, Urban Studies, Vol. 53 (1), January, 2016)

“In this compelling study of three port cities, Mah attempts to trace the global legacy of dockworkers’ trade union movements. … this is a thought-provoking study. … for the reader who wants a snapshot of current conditions in these three port cities, this book is good place to start.” (Colin Davis, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 27 (4), November, 2015)

"What becomes of once-preeminent world harbors when a new global age relegates them to the minor leagues of seaports? In this rich and imaginative joining of Liverpool, Marseille, and New Orleans, two mere shadows of their former glories, a third a troubled giant, Alice Mah ranges across waterfront developments, museum projects, crime stories, and traditions of radical action to capture their quest for a return to greatness amidst the need to confront a conflicted past and a dubious future." - Michael B. Miller, Professor of History, University of Miami, USA

"Transformation along waterfronts in port cities has been analysed through many case studies. This book offers a new comparative and cross-disciplinary approach. It focuses on how labour can create a specific port identity and provide new perspectives of transformation, which can include heritage for developing a more modern image for port cities in the future." - Dirk Schubert, Professor of Urban Planning, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany

"Alice Mah's sensitively written and deftly researched study explores Liverpool, Marseille and New Orleans as these port cities of 'the first global age' face the complex challenges of redevelopment, restructuring and recovery. Moving between the realms of cultural representation, histories of labour solidarity and struggle, and contested futures, the book traces the tangled lines that lead from legacies of empire, colonialism and slavery, through decline and ruination to a new urban politics of hope." - Fran Tonkiss, Director, Cities Programme, London School of Economics, UK

Abandoned factories, shipyards, warehouses, and refineries are features of many industrialized ci... more Abandoned factories, shipyards, warehouses, and refineries are features of many industrialized cities around the world. But despite their state of decline, these derelict sites remain vitally connected with the urban landscapes that surround them. In this enlightening new book, Alice Mah explores the experiences of urban decline and post-industrial change in three different community contexts: Niagara Falls, Canada/USA; Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; and Ivanovo, Russia.

Employing a unique methodological approach that combines ethnographic, spatial, and documentary methods, Mah draws on international comparisons of the landscapes and legacies of industrial ruination over the past forty years. Through this, she foregrounds the complex challenges of living with prolonged uncertainty and deprivation amidst socioeconomic change. This rich comparative study makes an essential contribution to far-reaching debates about the decline of manufacturing, regeneration, and identity, and will have important implications for urban theory and policy.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2010

This article examines how local people's memories relate to processes of industrial decline and r... more This article examines how local people's memories relate to processes of industrial decline and ruination in Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne, based on site observations and 30 semi-structured interviews conducted between June 2005 and March 2006, with a range of local people. Much of the recent literature concerning the relationships between memory and place focuses on the contrast between social reconstructions of official and unofficial collective memory. This article explores a different dynamic between memory and place through the case study of Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, an area where shipbuilding has long been in decline, but at the time of interviewing, the ‘last shipyard of the Tyne’ had yet to close. In Walker, local accounts of the industrial past represent ‘living memories’, embodying complex relationships with the industrial past: many people who have lived through processes of industrial ruination focus on imminent regeneration rather than mourning or celebrating the industrial past. The strength of community solidarity in Walker represents another form of living memory, echoing family and community bonds formed in the industrial era despite the fact that a direct connection with shipbuilding has all but disappeared. This article argues that living memories relate to the particular social and economic processes of industrial ruination in Walker, where the decline of shipbuilding over the past 30 years has been protracted, leaving a profound sense of uncertainty for people who occupy the precarious transitional spaces of post-industrial change.

Sociology

This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunit... more This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunities for social participation and that social and economic rights are integral to any discussion of the subject. We offer both a social constructionist and a normative framework for a sociology of human rights which reaches beyond liberal individualism, combining insights from the work of Amartya Sen and from French convention theory. Following Sen, we argue that human rights are founded on the promotion of human capabilities as ethical demands shaped by public reasoning. Using French convention theory, we show how the terms of such deliberation are shaped by different constructions of collectively held values and the compromises reached between them. We conclude by demonstrating how our approach offers a new perspective on spheres of public action and the role these should play in promoting social cohesion, individual capabilities and human rights.

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2012

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2009

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the justifying arguments of various Birmingham ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the justifying arguments of various Birmingham organisations between 1870 and 1914 in classifying and treating the unemployed. Using a capability approach, the paper will examine how employment policies in Birmingham during this period promoted or limited capabilities of work, life and voice. Finally, implications for labour market policies today will be discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical framework for this paper will draw on the capability approach to a person's well-being, developed by Amartya Sen and on theoretical and empirical developments of the capability approach by other authors such as Bonvin and Salais. This paper is based on historical archival research and analysis. Findings – Birmingham was an exemplar of municipal social reform in late nineteenth century England, with the development of a range of public services such as education, electricity and public transport. However, the city's vision of civic reform was closely connected to the Liberal market logic of individual responsibility, and moral judgements of the unemployed served to multiply the categories and punitive treatments of the “undeserving”, separating the valid from the invalid citizen. Originality/value – This case study of municipal employment policies in Birmingham at the turn of the twentieth century demonstrates the implications of moral judgements, classifications and treatments of the unemployed for people's capabilities in work and life, drawing connections to discourses of responsibility and citizenship today.

Home Cultures, 2009

... be demolished, a home she had lived in for thirty-one years: “People there won't let me ... more ... be demolished, a home she had lived in for thirty-one years: “People there won't let me know when, how long's it gonna be before ... In an ethnography of young subcultures in North East England,Anoop Nayak (2003) analyzes “Geordie” identity through the lens of class and race. ...

British Journal of Management

While much of the literature on gender focuses on role models, this article extends the understan... more While much of the literature on gender focuses on role models, this article extends the understanding of gendered professional identification processes by exploring these processes through the lenses of idealization and admiration. Using the method of discourse analysis to analyse MBA students’ accounts of people who they identify with, this article explores discourses of idealization, defined as aggrandising a person, and of admiration, which means to discuss positive as well as negative and neutral characteristics of a person. We show firstly that most male and female MBA students idealised the self-made ‘authentic’ CEO or founder of an organization. Secondly, we found that women mainly admired other women through naming their positive, neutral and negative attributes. The article thereby adds to our understanding of how gendered identification processes are structured by idealization and admiration.

Toxic Truths: Environmental Justice and Citizen Science in a Post-Truth Age, 2020

It is difficult to make sense of a historical moment when you are caught in the middle of it-and ... more It is difficult to make sense of a historical moment when you are caught in the middle of it-and difficult to tell if it even is a moment, or just a small part of something far bigger. Over the past few years we have witnessed rising authori-tarianism, extreme weather events attributed to climate change, the fallout from political populism, and-as this book goes to print-a global pandemic. In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary made post-truth its word of the year, defining it as: "denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." Two years later, the OED's word of the year was toxic, chosen because of the "the sheer scope of its application … in an array of contexts, both in its literal and more metaphorical senses." For all of these worrying trends, it is tempting to make proclamations about imminent global catastrophe and the novelty of our toxic, post-truth times. However, the Brave New World has been heralded for decades. In the 1980s, the Bhopal and Chernobyl incidents sent shock waves around the world, highlighting the catastrophic consequences of industrial disaster. These followed in the wake of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring (1962), a powerful indictment of the use of chemical pesticides, and coincided with the growing US anti-toxics movement. The anthropologist Kim Fortun (2012, 446-449) describes the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy as the beginning of an era of "late industri-alism" characterized by pervasive and normalized disasters: a "world noisy with