Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown

by Javier Auyero, Debora Alejandra Swistun (Primary Contributor)

Surrounded by one of the largest petrochemical compounds in Argentina, a highly polluted river that brings the toxic waste of tanneries and other industries, a hazardous and largely unsupervised waste incinerator, and an unmonitored landfill, Flammable's soil, air, and water are contaminated with lead, chromium, benzene, and other chemicals. So are its nearly five thousand sickened and frail inhabitants. How do poor people make sense of and cope with toxic pollution? Why do they fail to understand what is objectively a clear and present danger? How are perceptions and misperceptions shared within a community?

Based on archival research and two and a half years of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork in Flammable, this book examines the lived experiences of environmental suffering. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, residents allow themselves to doubt or even deny the hard facts of industrial pollution. This happens, the authors argue, through a "labor of confusion" enabled by state officials who frequently raise the issue of relocation and just as frequently suspend it; by the companies who fund local health care but assert that the area is unfit for human residence; by doctors who say the illnesses are no different from anywhere else but tell mothers they must leave the neighborhood if their families are to be cured; by journalists who randomly appear and focus on the most extreme aspects of life there; and by lawyers who encourage residents to hold out for a settlement. These contradictory actions, advice, and information work together to shape the confused experience of living in
danger and ultimately translates into a long, ineffective, and uncertain waiting time, a time dictated by powerful interests and shared by all marginalized groups.

With luminous and vivid descriptions of everyday life in the neighborhood, Auyero and Swistun depict this on-going slow motion human and environmental disaster and dissect the manifold ways in which it is experienced by Flammable residents.

Genres: Sociology, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography, Environment, Science, School

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mapisita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Javier Auyero nos brinda una etnografia fácil de leer, buena y llena de cuestionamientos en torno al sufrimiento ambiental. Este libro me ayudó a entender la confusión, la espera y la resignación como elementos opresores que ejercen muchos actores (empresas privadas, médicos, abogados e instituciones del Estado). Disfrute mucho el punto de vista de Débora que analizaba y vivía su propia realidad, me pareció durísimo cuando se va a hacer exámenes para detectar si tiene o no plomo en la sangre. Más allá del gran aporte que hace Auyero en el estudio de sufrimiento ambiental en ambientes urbanos, este libro me lleno de rabia pero también de comprensión, me permitió entender cómo la pobreza también era un asunto ambiental y ecológico. Sin duda es un libro que pone muchos temas sobre la mesa.

[Sanchita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fast read, the picture that the authors draw for the reader is evocative, empathetic and comes from a place of nuance rather than judgement. This text also asks very pertinent questions about the nature of social movements.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. You should read this book. I thought I understood environmental violence but this book really made it clear for me. Really, you should read this book

[Michelle Polo · Rating 4 out of 5]

ethnography that got a little confusing to read but really opened my eyes and showed me the complexity of EJ in Flammable. between EJ and violence, we see the two world emerging. distrust of the police, symbolic violence, Shell covering up with clinics and “cool things”, seeing how confused the people are. are they contaminated? where is it coming from? who’s to blame? lit’s the poor people’s fault that their sick bc WE are fine”. shoutout to Auyero he inspired me.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really moving account of one neighborhood in Buenos Aires struggling with industrial pollution. I think the authors' analysis focuses too much on "confusion", and sometimes they editorialize with factual assessments of information ("so and so believes X, wrongly") in ways that are kind of jarring and seem inappropriate for an anthropological study. It's a quick read so I think it's worthwhile for anyone interested in the intersections of environmentalism, urbanism, and inequality.

[astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good - another recommendation from sociology supervisor that I found very illuminating and am glad to have read. Not the first or the last of its kind exploring environmental suffering, but very compellingly considers the twin dimensions of 'toxic experience' and 'collective confusion,' with the latter being particularly interesting from an ethnographic standpoint as Auyero and Swistun strive to interpret and relay how the residents of Villa Inflamable make sense of their lives, the toxic contamination, and the suffering they experience, often in contradictory ways marred by uncertainty, chronic 'waiting,' and ambiguity. These are, as Auyero and Swistun increasingly find themselves, extremely understandable responses to the confusing and contradictory messaging that they face from various sources - from the medical professionals that simultaneously know that 'something' is up about the area, whilst also being clearly uncertain about the real effects of 'contamination,' to the confusing perspectives held on companies no doubt responsible for polluting, but nevertheless entangled in community outreach and health schemes, and the lawyers that mislead about outcomes of cases, promising relocation and monetary consumption that residents constantly believe are on the brink of materialising, but somehow never come. It is an excellent portrait of what can get in the way of social movement formation, and of the ambiguity that is often dominant in the ways agents make sense of crisis and social suffering, but which is perhaps less prominent in how ethnographies have tended to deal with these subjects. I also really appreciated the interdisciplinary fusion, shaped further by the differing positionalities of the co-authors: Auyero being a tenured US sociologist and Swistun a native, fresh-from-undergrad anthropologist who has grown up in Villa Inflamable makes for a compelling fusion that gives a unique depiction of the area and those who have been living these lives, experiencing the build-up of pollution and its impact not all at once, as might catalyse a more dramatic response, but much more slowly and gradually. It was very moving to see Swistun's own revelations about her health as affected by life in Villa Inflamable for so long, and the conflicts felt between her activism, her responsibility to her community, family, and friends, and her own declining health by virtue of continuing to live there. Perhaps my first foray into 'native' anthropology, and I hope not my last. Concluding words on making sense of suffering - making it 'meaningful,' as it were - made me well up, and the final lines too. "This book was conceived of as our way of telling Flammable residents that we are concerned with them, we are with them, we are listening to their stories, and we will testify to what they are living through. If anything, this book bears witness to their experiences of toxic suffering." This is always a powerful mission statement to me when I think about ethnography-based social scientific research, when we are looking not solely to observe, but to help procure material change for the affected, negated, and subaltern.

[Julio César · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro. Un tema candente tratado desde la perspectiva de la etnografía política de Auyero. Aplica su método "cubista", esto es, mirar a un fenómeno desde distintos puntos para así obtener una imagen más completa. Esta versión en español es lamentablemente más corta que la original en inglés, publicada en 2009 si mal no recuerdo

[Kristina Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting ethnography that tries to get into the everyday decisions and knowledge produced when living through a long-term environmental toxic disaster.