Lead Paint and the Production of Poisonous Space in Baltimore City

• In Event: 315 - Open Refereed Roundtables Session. B. Table 01 Shared and Contested Spaces
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 06. Inequality, Place and Environment

Abstract

Lead poisoning is a grave public health issue in Baltimore city, impacting thousands of children every year, and most often traced to lead paint hazards in sub-standard housing. Lead paint can be found today ubiquitously in homes all across the city of Baltimore, and yet incidences of lead poisoning are spatially clustered in particular neighborhoods. Why are some children getting poisoned but not others? My project will analyze the politics of place-making that create unequal neighborhoods in Baltimore. I will identify the inefficiencies within the state that account for the persistent spatial clustering of lead poisoning, exploring the factors that contribute to gaps in the state’s ability to detect and eradicate lead in the city’s housing stock. My approach to this central research question is two-pronged. One line of inquiry uses spatial data analysis to locate the source of the problem within geographic fields. The other line of inquiry uses socio-political analysis to locate the source of the problem within political fields and power networks. My study builds off neighborhoods effects literature; instead of an “analysis of the bottom” that explores the impacts of disadvantaged neighborhood spaces, I push toward a relational analysis of the interactions between the state and the urban poor that create and maintain differential access to resources across neighborhoods, thereby accounting for the persistent spatial concentrations of lead poisoning in Baltimore.

Author

• Leah Scrivener, University of Wisconsin-Madison