Shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (less developed countries)? … I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that… I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted. (Lawrence Summers, chief economic advisor to the IMF, 1991).

Although these notorious words of Lawrence Summers, the chief economic advisor to the IMF, have received critical attention within postcolonial studies and the environmental justice movement, one cannot deny the fact that the notoriety is not due to the novelty of his claims, but the boldness in professing it as a policy statement. After all, the despoilation of the Global South has followed this logic, as exemplified by the various documented instances of the global North and world powers treating the countries and communities of the Global South as the dumping ground for plastic, toxins, wastes and pollutants from the so-called first-world countries with the attendant severe health, economic, and ecological consequences.

In this special issue of The Global South, the editors invite contributors to critically engage with what Sourit Bhattacharya theorized as “the toxic ecologies of the Global South” that reflects “the disposable nature of life and living in this part of the world” as well as the “socio-economic and physio-ecological conditions characteristics of the Global South” (222, 225). Given the saturation of Global South ecologies with wastes, toxins, and pollutants; we invite contributors to examine the implications of unprecedented exposure to toxic contamination and pollution from various sources, such as industrial pollution, chemical and electronic waste, fossil fuel extractions, and climate change in the Global South. Contributors can also reflect on toxic disasters that lead to several other outcomes such as energy conflicts, and climate migrations from (and within) the Global South; or the various ways in which toxic waste remakes the landscapes and ecologies of the Global South.

We also invite contributors to investigate the intersection between toxicity and environmental degradation in the Global South. By examining the ways in which various writers, artists, and activists engage with the politics of toxicity, we ask contributors to interrogate the complex relationship between colonialism, environmental (in)justice, capitalism, race, and gender.

Please send an abstract of about 500 words and a 100-word bio by December 31, 2023, to cko34@cornell.edu and pavanmalreddy@gmail.com. Accepted contributors will have until November 30th, 2024, to submit their final paper. Completed final papers should be between 7,500-10,000 words (in MLA style).

Co-Editors: Chijioke K. Onah (Cornell University) and Pavan Malreddy (Goethe University of Frankfurt)

Contact Emails: cko34@cornell.edu, pavanmalreddy@gmail.com