'Instead of tumbleweed, we have mitigation systems': An ethnography of toxics risk, mitigation, and advocacy in IBM's deindustrialized birthplace

This dissertation draws on ethnographic data and political ecological theory to analyze the experience of residents living in the IBM-Endicott Superfund site in Endicott, New York. Combining in-depth narratives and quantitative measures from a household survey, it highlights residents' perceptions of 1) environmental health risk, 2) risk mitigation, 3) deindustrialization and community change, and 4) illustrates the experiences of local activists and their efforts to address community concerns and their negations with environmental justice politics. As an applied environmental anthropology project, the dissertation also makes policy recommendations for communities coping with an emerging environmental health risk known as vapor intrusion. Endicott is the largest site nationwide for the mitigation of vapor intrusion. This dissertation is the first social scientific research project to investigate and document community responses to and perspectives on the efficacy of a large scale vapor intrusion mitigation effort.