"But I Know It's True": Environmental Risk Assessment, Justice, and Anthropology

Checker, Melissa, Human Organization

Few social issues depend as heavily on scientific information as environmental problems. Yet activists, governmental officials, corporate entities, and even scientists agree that much of the science behind environmental risk assessments is controversial and uncertain. Using a low-income African-American neighborhood as a primary case example, this paper illustrates in concrete terms how environmental risk assessments can exclude the experiences of the poor and people of color. Further, race and class experiences intensify a community's susceptibility to, and perceptions of, risk. These experiences and perceptions underpin the ways that communities contest scientific biases in everyday …

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Publication information: Article title: "But I Know It's True": Environmental Risk Assessment, Justice, and Anthropology. Contributors: Checker, Melissa - Author. Journal title: Human Organization. Volume: 66. Issue: 2 Publication date: Summer 2007. Page number: 112+. © Society of Applied Anthropology Winter 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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