Table Of ContentD I R T
In memory of Dame Mary Douglas (1921–2007)
D I R T
New Geographies
of Cleanliness and
Contamination
EDITED BY BEN CAMPKIN AND ROSIE COX
Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave
Macmillan a division of St Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY
10010
Copyright selection and editorial matter © 2007, Ben Campkin and Rosie Cox
Copyright individual chapters © 2007, Johan Andersson, Lívia Barbosa, Alyson
Brody, Ben Campkin, Rosie Cox, Paul Dobraszczyk, Elizabeth Dowler, Gareth
Enticott, Pamela K. Gilbert, Lewis Holloway, Dominic Janes, Moya Kneafsey,
Lydia Martens, David L. Pike, Bruce A. Scholten, Kyro Selket, Helena
Tuomainen, Laura Venn, Paul Watt, Carol Wolkowitz
The right of Ben Campkin and Rosie Cox to be identified as the authors of
this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the
Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
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ISBN 978 1 84511 672 9
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow,
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Contents
Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Materialities and Metaphors of Dirt and Cleanliness
Ben Campkin and Rosie Cox 1
Section 1 Home: Domestic Dirt and Cleaning
Introduction Rosie Cox 11
1. Linguistic Leakiness or Really Dirty? Dirt in Social Theory
Carol Wolkowitz 15
2. Domestic Workers and Pollution in Brazil
Lívia Barbosa 25
3. The Visible and the Invisible: (De)regulation in
Contemporary Cleaning Practices
Lydia Martens 34
4. Bring Home the Dead: Purity and Filth in
Contemporary Funeral Homes
Kyro Selket 49
Section 2 City and Suburb: Urban Dirt and Cleansing
Introduction Ben Campkin 63
5. Degradation and Regeneration: Theories of Dirt and the
Contemporary City
Ben Campkin 68
6. From the Dirty City to the Spoiled Suburb
Paul Watt 80
7. Dangers Lurking Everywhere: The Sex Offender as Pollution
Pamela K. Gilbert 92
8. Hygiene Aesthetics on London’s Gay Scene: The Stigma of AIDS
Johan Andersson 103
v
CONTENTS
9. Spiritual Cleansing: Priests and Prostitutes in Early
Victorian London
Dominic Janes 113
10. Mapping Sewer Spaces in mid-Victorian London
Paul Dobraszczyk 123
11. The Cinematic Sewer
David L. Pike 138
Section 3 Country: Constructing Rural Dirt
Introduction Rosie Cox 153
12. Dirt and Development: Alternative Modernities in Thailand
Alyson Brody 156
13. Dirty Foods, Healthy Communities?
Gareth Enticott 168
14. Dirty Vegetables: Connecting Consumers to the Growing
of their Food
Lewis Holloway, Laura Venn, Rosie Cox, Moya Kneafsey,
Elizabeth Dowler, Helena Tuomainen 178
15. Dirty Cows: Perceptions of BSE/vCJD
Bruce A. Scholten 189
Contributors 198
Notes 202
References 236
Index 257
vi
Figures
13.1 Table showing socio-demographic characteristics of
participating households. 36
14.1 Main funeral home, corner Willis and Aro Street, Wellington
City. Reproduced courtesy of Lychgate Funeral Home (2006)
http:// www.lychgate.co.nz/contact.aspx, (accessed
20 November 2006). 52
14.2 Beauchamp Funeral Home exterior, Kimbolton Road, Feilding;
interior, Morris Street, Marton. Reproduced courtesy of
Beauchamp Funeral Home (2006) http://www.beauchamp.co.
nz/feilding.php (accessed 20 November 2006). 53
14.3 Plan of a typical funeral home. Credit: Tim Wray. 55
15.1 The Dirty House (2001–2002), Adjaye/Associates, Shoreditch,
London. Photograph: Tim Wray (2007). 75
15.2 Clean up, Clerkenwell Green, London Architecture
Biennale (2006), Matthew Lloyd Architects and ‘Moose’.
Photograph: Ben Campkin 76
15.3 Clean up, Clerkenwell Green, London Architecture
Biennale (2006), Matthew Lloyd Architects and ‘Moose’,
detail. Photograph: Ben Campkin 77
18.1 Exterior, Rupert Street bar, Soho, London.
Photograph: Johan Andersson (2007). 109
18.2 Interior, The Edge bar, Soho, London.
Photograph: Johan Andersson (2007). 111
10.1 Extract from a map made by the Holborn and Finsbury
Sewer Commission (1846). Reproduced courtesy of
Thames Water plc. 127
10.2 Index to the map of London made for the Metropolitan
Commissioners of Sewers (1850). Reproduced courtesy of
the London Metropolitan Archives, Corporation of London. 128
10.3 Sheet 553 of the five-feet to one-mile Ordnance Survey of
London (c.1849). Reproduced courtesy of the London
Metropolitan Archives, Corporation of London. 129
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FIGURES
10.4 Extract from Sheet 27 of the 12-inch Ordnance Survey
index plan (1848–51). Reproduced courtesy of the
London Metropolitan Archives, Corporation of London. 130
10.5 Page from Book 45, Westminster Levels, showing sewer
information collected by the surveyor T. Bevan (1848).
Reproduced courtesy of the London Metropolitan
Archives, Corporation of London. 132
10.6 Extract from sheet 27 of the 12-inch Ordnance Survey index
plan showing sewer overlays (c.1850). Reproduced courtesy
of the London Metropolitan Archives, Corporation of London. 136
11.1 Jean Valjean seeks escape and redemption through the
sewer in Les Misérables (1978) directed by Glenn Jordan.
DVD frame enlargement. Lions Gate (2004). 141
11.2 Exploring the dark heart of the modern American city in
Alligator (1980) directed by Lewis Teague. DVD frame
enlargement. Atlas International (1990). 143
11.3 Cold war style mobilization in the storm drains of Los
Angeles. DVD frame enlargement from Them! (1954)
directed by Gordon Douglas. Warner Home Video (2002). 146
11.4 Trapped between a rock and a hard place: the end of the
Warsaw Uprising, Kanal (1957) directed by Andrzej Wajda.
DVD frame enlargement. Criterion (2005). 148
11.5 Berlin-Athens: the Belgrade sewers open up into an illicit
tunnel network evidently spanning Europe, Underground
(1995) directed by Emir Kusturica. DVD frame enlargement
New Yorker Video (2003). 149
14.1 Dirty vegetables from a Waterland box.
Photograph: James Barry. 184
viii
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to thank everyone who has made the production of
this collection possible.
A number of the chapters included were first presented at the Association
of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Denver in 2005. Two sessions
on ‘Geographies of dirt and purity’ were organized by Rosie Cox and Laura
Venn who received support from the British Academy Overseas Conference
Grant Scheme.
We would like to thank the Architecture Research Fund of the Bartlett
School of Architecture, UCL, for a grant to assist with costs related to the
book’s production. We are particularly grateful to Jane Rendell for her advice
and support for this project.
Our thanks also go to David Stonestreet and Jayne Hill at I.B.Tauris and
Selina and Jason Cohen at Oxford Publishing Services for their contributions
to the book’s editing and production.
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