Pollution and perception: Social visibility and local environmental mobilization

Abstract

Why does local environmental degradation lead some communities to rebel while others remain politically complacent? This comparative analysis seeks a partial answer to that question through examination of the impacts of the social visibility of local environmental problems on political mobilization in the Great Lakes Basin. The data upon which this paper is based is drawn from original field research conducted in six environmentally contaminated communities in both the U.S. and Canada. The paper examines the efforts of industry, government and environmental organizations to manipulate the visibility of contaminants in order to promote or prevent the emergence of grass roots political activism. However, the data indicates that socially visible environmental disorganization increases local awareness of contamination, but has little bearing on the definition of that contamination as a problem requiring political action. The transformation of awareness of environmental problems into local political mobilization is not determined primarily by the social visibility of contaminants, their sources, or their impacts on the environment.