Currents of Inequality: Studies in Environmental Injustice

Slow Violence

Rob Nixon defines “slow violence" as a form of violence that unfolds gradually and out of sight, characterized by delayed destruction that is distributed over time and space. It is an attritional violence that is often not recognized as violence at all. He describes calamities that are slow and enduring, ones that methodically dispense their devastation while eluding our brief attention spans—and the focus of a spectacle-oriented media. The insidious nature of slow violence stems largely from the disproportionate attention given to events that are spectacular versus those that are unspectacular such as the effects of environmental degradation, toxicity, and pollution.

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