Short abstract:

Using a case study of air pollution activism in Southwest Detroit, this paper discusses the ways in which resident-activists produce counter knowledge to challenge scientific and technical ways of knowing ‘safety’ in U.S. air pollution regulation and monitoring.

Long abstract:

Southwest Detroit residents have advocated against the area’s 50+ polluting corporations and their regulatory bodies for decades. Michigan is one of the few U.S. states with a dedicated environmental justice (EJ) office in its environmental agency and nearby University of Michigan is the first institution with an academic program in EJ; both collaborate with local air pollution resident-activists, who have built long-term working relationships with state bureaucrats and a swath of academic experts. These partnerships led to the culmination of the first state-owned air monitor in residential Detroit. Yet, despite these successes and the 30 years of EJ advocacy and scholarship in the community, residents invariably do not feel heard by technical and policy elites. They continue to assert that their knowledge of air pollution is not captured by trusted state – technical and quantitative – ways of monitoring and evaluation.

Using this case study of air pollution activism in Southwest Detroit, this paper discusses the disconnect between technical, state-driven ways of knowing pollution and embodied, community-driven knowledge. In doing so, I articulate how and why resident-activists produce counter knowledge to disrupt scientific and technical ways of knowing ‘safety’ in U.S. air pollution regulation and monitoring. This work builds on investigations of how lay activists use citizen science to challenge environmental policies and break ‘expertise barriers’ (Ottinger, 2010; Parthasarathy, 2010), by discussing non-technical methods activist deploy (journaling, shareholder activism, storytelling, lawsuits) to articulate their own ways of knowing exposure and contest scientific findings that don’t validate their concerns and needs.