Calling for an End to Second-Class Shitizenship

• Published in: The Review of radical political economics Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 269 - 274
• Main Author: Cohen, Art
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.06.2010
• Subjects: Cities; England; Enterprises; London, England; New York; Sanitation
• ISSN: 0486-6134
• DOI: 10.1177/0486613410368508

A review essay on books by (1) Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett, The Last Taboo -- Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis (London, England, UNICEF: Earthscan, 2007); (2) Rose George, The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2008) & (3) Elizabeth Tilley, Christoph Luthi, Antoine Morel, Chris Zurbrugg and Roland Schertenleib, Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies (Winterthur, Switzerland:Mattenbach AG, 2008). Recent publication of two books and a technology compendium signal the urgency of devoting public attention to the lingering issue of inadequate sanitation for 40 percent of the world's people living in many of the world's cities and rural areas. The Last Taboo and The Big Necessity explore in detail the history, current predicaments, and future prospects for improving sanitation. The compendium describes a full range of technologies available to implement this improvement.JEL codes: I18, Q56, Q57.