Prosperous Pollutants: Bargaining with Risks and Forging Hopes in an Industrial Town in Serbia
Abstract
The article explores the ‘work of hope’ in relation to air pollution and health hazards in
Bor, a polluted copper-processing town in Eastern Serbia. The aim of this paper is to
show the mutual imbrication of hope and risk by delineating how hope for a stable
personal and communal future was anchored in the polluting company and the
toxic substances it produced, which, in various ways, provided a sense of possibility
and opportunity. I show how the work of hope demanded simultaneous weighing
up, manoeuvring, accepting, and bargaining with risks that became an integral part
of the work of hope in a social setting where the double bind of growth versus
sustainability was deeply embedded. I argue that together, hope and risk were both
framing devices for thinking about and living towards futures in a context of
reindustrialisation and recent sudden economic flourishing in this post-socialist town.
Keywords:
work of hope / risk / double bind / air pollution / futureSource:
Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 2016, 83, 3, 489-504
DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2016.1169205
ISSN: 0014-1844