Abstract
The article situates a lead poisoning epidemic in Uruguay within recent processes of neoliberal and environmental reform. It argues industrial contamination and its socio-political responses have become prevalent through neoliberal-inspired transformations in production and consumption, the dismantling of state services, and increased social vulnerability to affliction. Contrary to orthodox theories of neoliberal restructuring, however, environmental concerns have provoked state bureaucratic expansion, rather than contraction, bringing about new forms of environmental governance and enabling environmental politics across social scales. Neoliberal reforms in Uruguay have resulted in geographically uneven spatial arrangements, with ecology taking on central importance in both macro-level development strategies as well as in grassroots responses to intensified or newly recognized socio-environmental hazards. This article analytically draws together neoliberalism and environmentalism, or "neoliberal nature" in Uruguay. It shows how neoliberal engagements with nature and the environment structure risk for masses of people, providing the political tools for both environmental governance and the contestation of environmentally destructive practices.Keywords: lead poisoning, neoliberalism, environmentalism, sustainable development, Uruguay
Highlights
In Uruguay in 2001, the mass media began reporting on a widespread epidemic of pediatric lead poisoning in the western Montevideo working class district of La Teja
Despite being the world's oldest environmental disease and a decades-long occupational and environmental hazard in Uruguay, lead poisoning was never before officially recognized as a problem
Neoliberal reforms in Uruguay have resulted in geographically uneven spatial arrangements, with ecology taking on central importance in both macro level development strategies as well as in grassroots responses to intensified or newly recognized socio-environmental hazards
Summary
In Uruguay in 2001, the mass media began reporting on a widespread epidemic of pediatric lead poisoning in the western Montevideo working class district of La Teja. This article situates the discovery of lead poisoning within recent processes of neoliberal and environmental reform It argues that industrial contamination and its socio-political responses have become prevalent and even predictable through neoliberal-inspired transformations in production and consumption, the dismantling of state services, and increased social vulnerability to affliction. This article analytically draws together neoliberalism and environmentalism, or the manifestations of "neoliberal nature" in Uruguay It focuses on how the uneven character of neoliberalism structures risk and enhances vulnerability for masses of people while providing the political and bureaucratic tools for both the disciplining of human and biophysical nature, and the contestation of socially and environmentally destructive practices. Neoliberal reforms in Uruguay, a country long celebrated as Latin America's "exception" and a model for social democratic development and governance in the region, are fiercely contested and draw strong symbolic and ideological responses. In the margins of contamination interventions into the lead contamination problem and other socio-environmental hazards, raising broader questions about the political uses of nature and their effects on environmental degradation, governance, and politics
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