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Environmental activism and the construction of risk: implications for NGO alliances
Author(s) -
Forsyth Timothy
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(199907/08)11:5<687::aid-jid600>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - plural , pluralism (philosophy) , politics , representation (politics) , factory (object oriented programming) , state (computer science) , sociology , political economy , political science , public relations , public administration , law , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics , algorithm , computer science , programming language
This paper argues that academic approaches to environmental policy that equate political pluralism with the representation of plural environmental rationalities are overoptimistic and avoid the complex ways in which risk is constructed. The paper discusses two cases of industrial poisoning in Thailand to illustrate how alliances between factory workers and middle class activists strengthened political campaigns against the state but failed to identify the nature of risk or address workers' concerns. It is argued that academic debates need to acknowledge the pragmatic nature of both environmental knowledge and NGO alliances, and therefore seek more effective, inclusive public fora for assessing risk. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.