SHIFTING BOUNDARY WORK: Issues and Tensions in Environmental Health Science in the Case of Grand Bois, Louisiana

摘要

During the last three decades in the environmental movement there has been an important shift toward both the development and acceptance of heterogeneous science practices that encourage public participation on a number of levels (Allen, 2003; Fischer, 2000). This has been, in part, due to the emergence of environmental justice (EJ), a movement that combines issues of social justice with a broader conception of what counts as one's environment (Gottlieb, 2001; Szasz, 1994). Eschewing the nature vs. culture dichotomy of traditional environmentalism, EJ incorporates the on-the-ground texture of daily life as well as struggles within the social order into a movement that challenges racism, foregrounds class issues, and highlights the inequities of a government-supported, big-business-as-usual approach to regulation and policy. Yet, when scientists become involved in such movements as defenders of a 'public interest' or local community, as occurred in an EJ struggle in Louisiana's cancer alley, they may adopt diverse strategies that do not always harmonize well.