Technical Assistance: Providing Grassroots Groups Access to Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract

Scientific and technical information is an essential resource in toxics disputes. An examination of the practice of 24 technical assistance (TA) providers supports the conclusion that access to this resource is critical for grassroots environmental struggles and recognized as such by community activists and by TA providers. TA providers create and enhance access to scientific and technical information in a process which includes dialogue and the exchange and refinement of information gathered by both the community and by the TA provider. In this interactive process, informational and other needs are defined and redefined over time in relation to the strategic need to mobilize the community. Drawing on and incorporating community experience and expertise, TA providers help citizens to identify and document hazards and use scientific explanations of problems to make them public and actionable. They transfer skills in reading, interpreting, generating, and using information. Through this process, they facilitate learning by and building the capacity of citizen activists as organic experts and enhance their sense of agency and willingness to make demands on government and industry. Having learned to find and manipulate technical information, community activists are able to recast their experience in technical terms which are meaningful to official decision-makers.