JUST SCIENCE? Organizing Scientist Activism in the US Environmental Justice Movement

摘要

A major focus of social research on mobilizations for environmental justice in the US has been a cataloguing of the various ways in which citizens' groups are adopting the methods and language of science to wage a grassroots offensive against industrial polluters and their allies in government. Across the country, the mostly working-class and often minority residents living in at-risk communities conduct neighbourhood health surveys, map pollution flows through their streets and waterways, carry out 'body burden' studies, videotape visible evidence of chemical releases from industry smokestacks and pipelines, and monitor 'fenceline' air, water, and soil quality (Brown and Mikkelsen, 1990; Fischer, 2000; Irwin, 1995; Kroll-Smith and Floyd, 1997; O'Rourke and Macey, 2003). One result of this reorganization of activism has been to call into question the credibility of science, as expert knowledge and institutions face new and in some cases fundamental challenges from local community groups (Tesh, 2000).