R1 Mobilizing Science review.pdf

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Book Reviews

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Wapner's final chapter (Chapter 8) contains the details about his approach for

reinvigorating environ menta lism . Even if you find fault with his earlier premises, you

will find his solution intr ig ui ng -h is middle path through the extremes of natural-

ism and mastery. Central here is a shift from either nature or hum ans to both

natu re and humans . W apner's approac h emphasizes cultivating healthy, symbiotic

relationships between humans and their biophysical environment to foster coevolu-

tion. Readets will recognize some of his bright green politics ideas as em bodied

w ithin natural capitalism, the triple bo ttom line, and cradle to cradle from the

business sector-as well as in such recent trends as green urbanism, urban gardening,

and the rise of cellulosic biofuels.

Wapner's middle path approach raises interesting questions for social scientists to

pursue. W ha t is the role of environmental science in exam ining the dynamics and ex-

tent of coevolution? Con sider here the relatively new

fiel s

of sustainability science and

coupled hum an and natural systems, which examine how hum an well-being

is

directly

and indirectly promoted via ecosystem services. How can social and natural scientists

trained within their respective disciplines effectively collaborate to study human-nature

interrelationships? How will the relationship between the environmental movement

and the business sector evolve as the former continues to embrace strategies and so-

lutions aligned with Wapner's bright green pohtics? Ho w will the former prevent

cooptation by the latter? Finally, wh at is the role of religion in the future of Am erican

environmentalism? Recent trends within American Christianity-the rise of steward-

ship beliefs and creation care values-seem to position this belief system as ripe for

leadership in expressing compassion both for humans and the natural creation of God.

Mobilizing Science: Movements Participation and the Remaking of Knowledge

By Sabrina M cCo rmick

Temple University Press. 2009. 212 pages. $38.50 cloth.

Reviewer: Stephen Zavestoski,

University of San

rancisco

Scholarly work that bridges science studies and social movements has been some-

what sparse in the 30 years since these two fields became established in the discipline.

obilizing

Science

marks a significant attempt to fill this gap by introducing the con-

cept of democratizing science movements.

DS M s, according to McCormick, are movements that contest expert knowledge and

critique research findings as biased and politically driven. Their goals include legitimat-

R1avestoski, Stephen. 2011. Review of Mobilizing Science:

Movements, Participation, and the Remaking of Knowledge, bySabrina McCormick. Social Forces 89(4):1443-1445.


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1444

Social Forces S m

W hat makesMobilizing

cience

provocative and engag ing is McCormick's choice of

disparate cases to guide her analysis: the Brazilian anti-dam movement and the envi-

ronm enta l breast cancer movement in the Un ited States. The choice is premised on the

argu ment tha t con testation of science has spread to the industrializing world as a result

of the forms and institutions of science having become globalized. Previous research on

social movements and the role of science in policy has been en cum bered by perceived

divisions between the developed and developing world, argues McC orm ick. Analyzing

Brazil's anti-dam movement and the U.S.'s environmental breast cancer movement

advances our understanding of DSMs as movements that exist at the intersection of

global science and civil society by articulating the impo rtance of contex tual factors

while highlighting the global nature of these struggles.

McCormick's greatest contribution to bridging science studies and social move-

ments can be found in the opening chapter in which she lays out the theoretical

groundwork for distinguishing DSMs from other movements and for understanding

how they engage in challenges to science. This chapter also discusses the goals and

tactics of DSMs and explains why they arise. McCormick attributes to the process

of scientization wherein biased and insulated expert knowledge, influenced by the

corporate shaping of scientific production, marginalizes laypeople and makes them

vulnerable to tbe power invested in this institutional form. The chapter also theorizes

citizen/science alliances, a form of lay/expert collaboration in which citizens and sci-

entists work together on issues identified by laypeople, and on which DSMs rely to

restructure the institutions of science that shape policy decisions. Anyone looking to

engage studen ts in theoretical discussions ofth role of science in co ntem pora ry social

movements may find this chapter worth assigning. Chapter 7 constitutes the book's

most effective application of the theoretical framework by examining how collabora-

tion between experts and activists successfully re-shaped the government's plans for

a large hydroelectric dam project in eastern Amazon and how breast cancer activists

succeeded in restructuring government funding of breast cancer research.

In between these chapters, McCormick's ambitious attempt to compare and con-

trast the seemingly incomparable Brazilian anti-dam and the U.S. environmental

breast cancer movements includes separate chapters on the two movements, a chap-

ter on the roles of government institutions and corporate interests in precipitating

challenges from DMSs, more on lay/expert collaborations, and a chapter on the co-

optation risks DSMs face.

While McCormick's analysis of DSMs succeeds on the whole, the challenge of com-

paring two dissimilar cases left me with two lingering questions. Having co-authored


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Book Reviews

1445

ment initiation. This claim is supp orted by evidence that researchers politicized in-

demnification and mobilized affected popu lations in the Brazilian anti-dam mo vement.

With respect to the environmental breast cancer movement, however, it appears that

citizen/science alliances emerged after the movement's initiation to support the move-

ment's demands for new ways of studying breast cancer.

Second, McCormick claims that the scientific practices adopted by activist groups

shape the organizational structures of movements. But evidence of how they shape

movements

is

weak. W hen do movements reach out to scientists and integrate their col-

laborations into existing movement structures as opposed to building entire movement

structures around the scientific practices adopted and advocated by the movement?

A final flurry of questions is meant to precipitate debate among scholars interested

in the no tion of democratizing science m ovements. The strength

o obilizingScience

is its ability to prom pt such questions. M ight DS M s be irrelevant, at least in the U nited

States, where science has come under attack by a large segment of the population

invested in rejecting the volume of scientific knowledge that has accumulated around

anthropogenic climate change? Are climate change denialists interested in democratiz-

ing science? What would prevent future movements from adopting a strategy similar

to the Conservative movement to reject the science of climate change? If such move-

ments can have the same success as the climate denialism mo vement, then movem ents

expending time and energy to democratize science may be wasting their resources.

Working for Justice: The L A Model of Organizing and Advocacy

Edited by Ruth M ilkma n, Joshua Bloom and Victor N arro

ILR Press. 2010. 312 pages. $65.00 cloth, $21.95 paper.

Reviewer: Edward J.W. Park,

Loyola arymount University

Two of the m ost significant trends in the United States in the past four decades have been

the long and steady decline of organized labor and the dramatic rise in legal and illegal

immigration. The relationship between these two trends has attracted and generated a

great deal of atten tion and controversy. W hile most have asked the question Are im-

migrants good or bad for organized labor? Working for ustice^otsbeyond this simplistic

question to directly examine how imm igrant workers have organized in Los Angeles.

In the past two decades, Los Angeles has become an important place for under-

standing immigrant-centered labor movements. The success of the Service Employees

International Union's Justice for Janitor campaign in 1990 began a movement that


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