Learning from the Lived Experience of Industrial Waste Decommissioning
Learning from the Lived Experience of Industrial Waste Decommissioning
Lead Supervisor: David Whyte
Degree Programme: Law School, QMUL
Co-Supervisor:
Eleanor Godwin (School of Law)
Project Description
According to the Environment Agency, there are more than 300,000 potentially toxic sites across Britain. These contaminated sites are former factories, mines, industrial works, waste facilities, chemical plants and other areas where historic industrial activity has left contamination in soil, groundwater and surrounding environments. At present responsibility for remediation is fragmented across different regulatory regimes, public bodies, landowners and individual development projects.
This regulatory fragmentation obscures the cumulative scale of the problem and its full costs and responsibilities. Whilst the ongoing decommissioning programme in the North Sea has been infinitely more coherent and comprehensive, there remains a major shortfall in public investment necessary to complete the job effectively and a disproportionate burden of costs is falling on taxpayers rather than oil and gas companies. In both off- and onshore contexts, there have been major concerns about deadly and persistent toxins expressed by workers in those industries and adjacent communities. Indeed, the sites that have been remediated have been characterised by resentment on the part of communities.
There is a clear need to rethink policy on industrial decommissioning in ways that takes lessons from lived experience:
1) Learn from the experience and expertise of scientists and workers involved in decommissioning former industrial sites;
2) Learn from the experience of communities facing persistent toxins.
Only then can we begin to think about how the remediation of industrial sites can become a part of a circular economy. The project will thus conduct work in post-industrial toxic zones to establish a new ‘de-tox’ agenda that takes the knowledge and experience of local communities to build a transformative knowledge base for a clean and healthy future across post-industrial communities.
What we're looking for in a student
1) The project is, by definition, interdisciplinary. Applicants should have a undergraduate degree in Arts/Humanities and be able to demonstrate some understanding of social and/or historical research methods.
2) Students will have access to the doctoral training resources in research methods provided in the School of Law and the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, and in the Living with Waste Doctoral Programme. Students will be fully integrated into the academic activities of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice, including the Centre's research conferences and seminars.
Potential Partners
Professor David Whyte, who will be the lead supervisor on the project, has a strong network of campaign and community support organisations in the field. He will support the student in using this network as a foundation to build research access.
Key words: Industrial pollution; Toxic communities; Post-industial communities; Pollution remedation