Containment in Circulation: A Legal Political Ecology of Logistics

Keywords: Political ecology, legal geography, logistics, economic geography, environmental governance, environmental justice
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the supply chain, people worldwide received a crash course in the importance of logistics when corporations like Amazon became a lifeline for many. Before this increased public attention, however, scholars in geography had shown logistics to be a highly political yet indispensable process in the operation of global capitalism. Much of this scholarship underscores how the logistics industry frequently operates at the expense of marginalized people and the environment. In this paper, I contribute to this work by adding a legal political ecology analysis to the establishment of logistics sites in inland North America. Using interviews and participant observation collected at inland ports in the Midwest and Intermountain West, in this paper I show how the logistics industry enacts various forms of containment–in the form of legal enclosures, features in the built environment, and through acts of environmental governance–in order to assist in the movement of commodities. In addition, I highlight how activist organizations scrutinize these forms of enclosure, and the paradoxical nature of containment in an industry that is reliant on the free flow of goods. Last, I illustrate the prominent role municipal and state law plays in the formation of logistics sites. These sites often get carried out against the will of frontline communities, environmentalists, labor activists, and other groups challenging the unfettered expansion of warehouses, distribution centers, and intermodal hubs, despite their critical role in the global supply chain.