N. Bucky Stanton, PhD

My second research area examines the persistent delay in environmental cleanups of three heavy-metal contaminated industrial sites in New York state. In an article recently submitted to Science, Technology, and Human Values, my co-authors and I develop “slow cleanup” as a descriptive and critical concept for thinking about the relationship between regulatory procedures that contain the geographic scope of a site for decades as equally containing public concern. We further articulate our study as revealing the dynamics underlying the “non-production of concerned publics” as an aspect of remediation delays situated in-between studies of ignorance, procedural justice, and public engagement worthy of greater scholarly attention.