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Technoscience and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement

PUBLISHER MIT Press (09/02/2011)
PRODUCT TYPE Hardcover (Hardcover)

Description

Case studies exploring how experts' encounters with environmental justice are changing technical and scientific practice.

Over the course of nearly thirty years, the environmental justice movement has changed the politics of environmental activism and influenced environmental policy. In the process, it has turned the attention of environmental activists and regulatory agencies to issues of pollution, toxics, and human health as they affect ordinary people, especially people of color. This book argues that the environmental justice movement has also begun to transform science and engineering. The chapters present case studies of technical experts' encounters with environmental justice activists and issues, exploring the transformative potential of these interactions.

Technoscience and Environmental Justice first examines the scientific practices and identities of technical experts who work with environmental justice organizations, whether by becoming activists themselves or by sharing scientific information with communities. It then explore scientists' and engineers' activities in such mainstream scientific institutions as regulatory agencies and universities, where environmental justice concerns have been (partially) institutionalized as a response to environmental justice activism. All of the chapters grapple with the difficulty of transformation that experts face, but the studies also show how environmental justice activism has created opportunities for changing technical practices and, in a few cases, has even accomplished significant transformations.

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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780262015790
ISBN-10: 026201579X
Binding: Hardback or Cased Book (Sewn)
Content Language: English
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Page Count: 298
Carton Quantity: 30
Product Dimensions: 6.10 x 0.80 x 9.00 inches
Weight: 1.15 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Maps, Table of Contents, Illustrated
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Science | Environmental Science (see also Chemistry - Environmental)
Science | Public Policy - Environmental Policy
Grade Level: College Freshman and up
Dewey Decimal: 363.7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010048351
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
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Case studies exploring how experts' encounters with environmental justice are changing technical and scientific practice.

Over the course of nearly thirty years, the environmental justice movement has changed the politics of environmental activism and influenced environmental policy. In the process, it has turned the attention of environmental activists and regulatory agencies to issues of pollution, toxics, and human health as they affect ordinary people, especially people of color. This book argues that the environmental justice movement has also begun to transform science and engineering. The chapters present case studies of technical experts' encounters with environmental justice activists and issues, exploring the transformative potential of these interactions.

Technoscience and Environmental Justice first examines the scientific practices and identities of technical experts who work with environmental justice organizations, whether by becoming activists themselves or by sharing scientific information with communities. It then explore scientists' and engineers' activities in such mainstream scientific institutions as regulatory agencies and universities, where environmental justice concerns have been (partially) institutionalized as a response to environmental justice activism. All of the chapters grapple with the difficulty of transformation that experts face, but the studies also show how environmental justice activism has created opportunities for changing technical practices and, in a few cases, has even accomplished significant transformations.

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Editor: Ottinger, Gwen
Gwen Ottinger is Assistant Professor in the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, and the Department of History and Politics at Drexel University. She is co-editor of Technoscience and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement.
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Editor: Cohen, Benjamin R.
Benjamin Cohen is Assistant Professor at Lafayette College and the author of "Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside".
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Afterword by: Fortun, Kim
Kim Fortun is an associate professor in the Science and Technology Studies Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Hardcover