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MohamedAmir VtP Annotation

This visualization effectively introduces the viewer to an emergent conflict between the families living in the toxic place and the activists who understand themselves as advocates for those families. It underscores the complexity of the situation, the precarity of those affected, and the impossibility of a straight-forward solution. Moreover, the visualization speaks to the uneven distribution of symbolic power to "frame the social" and utter reality into being.

MohamedAmir VtP Annotation

I think the caption does a nice job of presenting the ongoing conflict over representation and the precarious futures of both the smelting operation and the community around it.  With that said, I might recommend striving for a more even balance of text devoted to the environmentalists' position (which currently predominates the caption) and the locals' perspective (which is currently relegated to a brief pair of concluding sentences.

MohamedAmir VtP Annotation

This visualization makes a strong statement about the stakes of recognizing places as toxic and people as contaminated. It unsettles common-sense notions about environmental advocacy, demonstrating the gulf between local, national, and international values and perspectives. And it problematizes the uneven distributions of symbolic power surrounding the Doe Run smelter.