MES Major Papers

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"South of the Burial Ground": The Bio/Necropolitics of Environmental Racism and (In)justice in Georgetown, Guyana.
(2015) Fung, Chelsea; Haritaworn, Jinthana K.
This research is focused on the lived experiences of a marginalized, predominantly black community in Georgetown, Guyana, that has been and continues to be, subjected to environmental racism and injustice. The communities of Lodge and East La Penitence, which are referred to by elders as ‘south of the burial ground’, border a state-neglected cemetery (Le Repentir Cemetery) and an old landfill site (Mandela Landfill). Through a poststructuralist antiracist framework, I explore the concepts of environmental injustice/racism in conversation with Michel Foucault’s ‘biopolitics’ and Achille Mbembe’s ‘necropolitics’ to provide a broader view of how the mortality of citizens is controlled and maintained. This may explain how environmental injustice is produced in some spaces, such as ‘south of the burial ground’, and prevented in others. By bringing issues of ‘biopolitics’ and ‘necropolitics’ to bear on environmental (in)justice theory and practices, I hope to suggest new ways that environmental injustices can be conceived, identified, and investigated.