Graduation Year
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.)
Degree Granting Department
Geography, Environment and Planning
Major Professor
M. Martin Bosman, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Elizabeth Strom, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Michael J. Lynch, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Steven Reader, Ph.D.
Keywords
Neoliberalism, Environmental Justice, Lead exposure, Criminology, Agnotology
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a great deal of debate about the pervasiveness and persistence of neoliberal thinking. In the context of the post-2008 ‘great recession’ the resilience of neoliberalism is particularly confounding. To begin to unravel the ways in which neoliberalism is situated relative to risk, this study identifies an increasingly important neoliberal knowledge practice: malagnogenesis. Malagnogenesis is proposed herein as the production of ignorance that normalizes harm for and amongst marginalized populations. To shed light on the phenomena of malagnogenesis, this study investigated the history of leaded gasoline in the U.S. To that end, I followed the production of ignorance from the introduction of gasoline lead additives in the early 1920s to the contemporary discursive failure surrounding the impact that leaded gasoline has had on late 20th century urban crime rates. Finally, this study supported the hypothesis of malagnogenesis in academia via a survey of academics.
Scholar Commons Citation
Martyn, Kevin P., "How Mature Capitalism Turns Pollution into Diamonds: Malagnogenesis and the Reverse-Engineering of Harm into Risk" (2016). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/6540
