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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 30:2 (2020) ► pp.271–293

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The spatialization and temporalization of environmental suffering

 | University of Arizona
 | University of Arizona
 | University of Arizona
Published online: 19 May 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.18054.sul
Abstract
Many people live in circumstances of environmental suffering: exposure to contaminated natural resources and toxic chemicals due to a history of accident or misuse. Environmental suffering is disproportionately experienced by politically, ethnically, and economically disadvantaged group members. An analysis rooted in the concept of false consciousness (Gabel, J. (1975). False consciousness: An essay on reification. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) suggests that environmental suffering narratives tend toward perspectival distortions. Although narratives from disadvantaged group members may contain defensive distortions, these are warranted by experiences of environmental suffering, and expert narratives also regularly contain distortions. Disadvantaged narratives of environmental suffering tend toward spatializing distortions: emphasizing spatial aspects, objectifying people and agents, and fixating on a tragic past. Advantaged narratives of environmental suffering tend toward temporalizing distortions: emphasizing temporal aspects, refusing to clearly assign blame, and fixating on a “miraculous” future. We present a preliminary supporting study, using quantitative text analysis, of parallel environmental suffering narratives from community members, EPA officials, and other experts.
Article outline
  • Introduction: Common themes in environmental suffering narratives
  • Method: The politics of narrative
  • Theoretical tools: False consciousness and psychiatric phenomenology
  • Theoretical analysis: Environmental suffering narratives as modes of false consciousness
    • Narrative style
    • Cognitive style
    • Attitude towards history
    • Summary
  • Empirical analysis: Themes in Superfund oral history interviews
  • Method
    • Data source
    • Analyses
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion: Redemption and “contamination” narratives
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (38)
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