Persistent Chemicals, Persistent Activism: Scientific Opportunity Structures and Social Movement Organizing on
Jennifer Liss Ohayon1, Alissa Cordner2, Andrea Amico3
1Silent Spring Institute.
Social Movement Studies
|April 7, 2025
Summary
Environmental health activism thrives when activists strategically use scientific evidence and data. This "scientific opportunity" concept highlights how community demands shape scientific research and application for social movements.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Social Movement Studies
- Science and Technology Studies
Background:
- Social movements increasingly engage with science, yet the science-advocacy relationship is under-theorized.
- Environmental health activism, exemplified by the fight against per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), depends on science and lay knowledge demands.
- PFAS chemicals, despite long-term contamination, gained prominence through recent activist, regulatory, and scientific attention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and examine the concept of "scientific opportunity" in social movement scholarship.
- To understand how activists mobilize scientific factors to achieve their goals.
- To explore how scientific factors influence the emergence and growth of activism.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with activists from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-impacted communities.
- Development of the "scientific opportunity" concept to analyze the interplay between science and activism.
- Examination of dimensions contributing to scientific opportunity, including funding, institutional receptivity, research collaboration, technological advancements, data availability, and scientific allies.
Main Results:
- Activists actively create and leverage scientific opportunities to advance their environmental health advocacy.
- The "scientific opportunity" concept illuminates the dynamic, bidirectional relationship between scientific evidence and activist demands.
- Key dimensions of scientific opportunity include funding, institutional access, community-led research, aligned methodologies, data availability, and scientific allies.
Conclusions:
- The "scientific opportunity" concept provides a novel framework for understanding science engagement in social movements.
- This framework is applicable to diverse social movements addressing complex science and technology issues.
- Recognizing and fostering scientific opportunity is crucial for the efficacy and success of environmental health activism and beyond.
