“Something in the Air”: Reasserting Humanity in a Polluted Neighbourhood

ABSTRACT Within one week in 2019, there were two traffic incidents on the South Circular in Catford, South East London, where one cyclist died and another one was severely injured. At the same time, a new inquest into the death of a nine-year-old resident who had died back in 2013 was being conducted, making the girl the first person in the UK whose cause of death is officially linked to pollution. This article assesses how uneven geographies of toxicity and oppressive infrastructures within cities highlight the entanglements of histories of colonialism and capitalism, as well as race and inequalities. Forms of slow violence are being executed by intentionally building and maintaining cities according to hegemonic visions of progress, marking some lives and landscapes as favourable and others as “disposable.” Hence, in order to work against the silencing of voices, more attention needs to be brought to the experiences of people living in toxic environments. Speaking to fundamental registers of visibility and politics of knowledge, this article asserts how people create meanings by relating to each other and their environments in order to resist the dehumanising consequences of toxic violence.