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Browsing by Author "Luxton, India M., author"

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    COVID-19, policymaking, and the production of harm in the meatpacking sector
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Luxton, India M., author; Malin, Stephanie, advisor; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Cross, Jennifer E., committee member; Sbicca, Joshua, committee member; Ipsen, Annabel, committee member; Hausermann, Heidi, committee member
    In March 2020, the United States was forced to respond to the impending threat of COVID-19. Businesses, schools, and many of society's institutions shuttered in hopes of preventing mass transmission. And yet, meatpacking plants remained open. By September 2021, over 59,000 meatpacking workers tested positive for COVID-19 and close to 300 workers had died from the virus (Douglas 2021). In this dissertation, I document the socio-political, structural, and institutional roots of high rates of COVID-19 transmission among meatpacking workers—and the impacts of firm decisions and federal, state, and local governance structures on workers. I utilize literature pertaining to industrialized animal agriculture, political economy, green criminology, and racial capitalism to analyze the intersections among policymaking and production of harm within the meatpacking sector. Drawing on 39 in-depth interviews, critical policy ethnography, and content analysis, I explore the impacts of labor and food policies on the safety and wellbeing of meatpacking workers prior to and during COVID-19. Through an extended multiscalar case study of the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, I trace the involvement of agribusiness actors in federal, state, and local level policymaking during COVID-19. I examine how legacies of racialized labor exploitation have enabled firms to uphold the treadmill of meat production and perpetrate hazardous working conditions—conditions further upheld through corporate self-regulation, rather than federal intervention. I document how regulatory power of the federal agencies tasked with protecting worker and public health, including the CDC and OSHA, has been greatly diminished in recent years due to declined funding, staff capacity, and a neoliberal political structure that favors corporate self-responsibility over state enforcement. I argue that a system of harm has been codified into the regulatory system; harm that emerges directly from policymaking and the outcomes of a neoliberal capitalist political-economic system. Throughout this dissertation, I analyze how meatpacking workers' vulnerabilities during COVID-19 were amplified by issues of procedural injustice and historical legacies of racial inequality and exploitation. I conclude with a discussion of theoretical and policy implications and offer suggestions for future research
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    Rocky Flats: a case study of nuclear contamination, knowledge, and environmental justice
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Luxton, India M., author; Malin, Stephanie, advisor; Hall, Peter, committee member; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member
    This thesis seeks to examine the environmental and public health experiences of individuals who live(d) near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility in Arvada, Colorado during and after its operation. The data presented for this thesis has been collected as part of MSU-CSU's Rocky Flats Health Study to collect qualitative interview data from individuals who suffer from rare cancers, chronic illnesses, or have had a family member who has passed due to these health outcomes. Currently, there are few health studies related to Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, and those that do exist are highly contested (Iversen 2012). In addition to archival analysis of fifteen interviews, oral histories were conducted with fifteen individuals. Oral histories illustrate community perceptions of Rocky Flats, as well as the impact of living in close proximity has had on their health and quality of life. In my findings, I illustrate the political, institutional, and interpersonal aspects of accessing information regarding environmental contamination and subsequent health risks. Findings illustrate that access to information both during and after the facility's operation was severely constrained by structural barriers, conflicting reports of safety, and a culture of secrecy surrounding the site. Additionally, I examine the contested nature of participants' illnesses as well as their notions of justice. Understanding the lived, psycho-social experiences of people with contested illness is critical to connecting questions of justice and environmental contamination.