ABOUT
Slow violence could be manifested in a person’s chronic illness after a lifetime of exposure to traces of toxic substances; or the gradual transformation of a river from a life-giving habitat to an inhospitable one. It is violence that takes place gradually, tricking us into believing deterioration is inevitable.
Academic research has included slow violence mostly as a supplementary concept to environmental racism and related issues. And indeed, slow violence and environmental racism have a lot in common - both are commonly caused by powerful people, institutions, or corporations putting the damage they inflict on the environment “out of (their) sight, out of mind.” Both have inflicted trauma on marginalized, often unconsenting communities. But slow violence might be better understood as something that produces some of the problems that victims of environmental racism face.
It doesn’t have the sensational visuals to captivate mass media audiences, or the obvious criminals and victims to build a gripping story. Causes and effects are distant, the link between them is dispersed over time and space, making it difficult to trace, and even harder to represent.
the project
This project was created to help spread the concept of slow violence outside of academia, and offer young people in Canada another way to understand and navigate how legacies of colonialism continue to impact us today. It is intended as both a resource and a platform for Canadian youth, organizers, and activists to understand and expand the way we think about the non-dramatic forms of violence that our generation, and generations to come, will have to face. This project was created as part of Pivot 2020, a program led by Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Youthful Cities and the Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity, and funded by the Government of Canada.
The Slow Violence Project is a work in progress, and invites Canadian youth, whether you believe you have experienced slow violence or not, to contribute your opinion, with no prior knowledge needed.
Structural Violence
Structural Violence
Structures and institutions of a society can explicitly or indirectly cause harm. These structures are static and fixed in the laws, policies, and architecture of the past and present.
For example, the residential school system in Canada was a structure (a policy and practice) that caused immediate, and lasting harm on Indigenous people and communities.
In structural violence, the agents of violence are identifiable. Structural violence may perpetuate slow violence, and vice versa.
RELATED
CONCEPTS
Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
Environmental justice issues include air quality, water quality, access to healthy food, and even urbanization policies.
There are significant environmental costs to our policies and actions, but they are not evenly distributed. Some groups face disproportionate environmental risks for the benefit of other segments of society.
Environmental Racism
Environmental Racism
Environmental racism is usually thought of as a product of policymaking and the uneven enforcement of regulations and laws, to the disadvantage of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People Of Colour) and other oppressed groups. It can be the deliberate targeting of such groups, or framed as oversight.
In Canada, one example of environmental racism is Africville. This small Black community just north of Halifax was denied basic public services such as sewage and over its history, the City of Halifax sited undesirable and hazardous developments nearby, compromising the community's health and safety for years before forcing them out and bulldozing their homes for "urban renewal".
movies
RESOURCES
reading list
Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor by Rob Nixon (Book)
Web Resources
Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas)
Environmental Racism in Canada (Ecojustice)
Children of the poisoned river by Jody Porter (CBC)
New study in Aamjiwnaang finds residents may face higher health risks caused by toxic substance in air by Colin Graf (Anishinabek News)
*note the implied uncertainty of damage
2020 is a ‘preview’ of how bad things can get if we don’t fix climate change, other systemic problems: Lancet report by Catherine Clifford (CNBC)
Academic Articles
"'IT’S EXHAUSTING TO CREATE AN EVENT OUT OF NOTHING': Slow Violence and the Manipulation of Time" by Chloe Ahmann, Cultural Anthropology, 2018
"Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?" by Thom Davies, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2019
"Climate change, ‘slow violence’ and the indefinite deferral of responsibility for ‘loss and damage’" by Julia Dehm, Griffith Law Review, 2020
"Law's Slow Violence: A Review of Rob Nixon's "Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor" (HUP, 2010)" by Dayna Nadine Scott, Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy, 2012