Masterson-Allen S, Brown P
Department of Sociology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912.
Int J Health Serv. 1990;20(3):485-500. doi: 10.2190/ATLC-AX39-M5EX-BYHF.
In this article we explore citizen action against toxic waste as a social movement, emphasizing the unique challenges posed by the technological nature of the toxic waste issue. Unlike other contemporary health-related social movements such as the women's movement and anti-nuclear groups, the movement against toxic waste is not composed primarily of highly educated, upper-middle-class people who are motivated by global concerns. Toxic waste activists are typically working-class and lower-class people, politicized initially by perceptions of danger to the health of their families. However, awareness of global dangers and the larger political-economic issues related to toxic waste contamination is often emergent in the process of mobilization. The movement against toxic waste can be seen as part of a larger social trend toward increased public demand for a role in scientific and technological decision-making which challenges scientific criteria for assessing risk and experts' claim to technical knowledge. While toxic waste activism is better explained by European theorists' "new social movement theory" than by resource mobilization theory, the former theory does not account for the toxic waste movement's class composition. The necessity for developing a new theory of social movements that captures the complexities of toxic waste activism is discussed.
在本文中，我们探讨公民针对有毒废物的行动作为一场社会运动，强调有毒废物问题的技术性质所带来的独特挑战。与其他当代与健康相关的社会运动，如妇女运动和反核团体不同，反对有毒废物的运动主要不是由受全球关注驱动的受过高等教育的中上层阶级人士组成。有毒废物活动家通常是工人阶级和下层阶级人士，他们最初因察觉到对家人健康的危险而政治化。然而，在动员过程中，对全球危险以及与有毒废物污染相关的更大政治经济问题的认识往往会显现出来。反对有毒废物的运动可被视为更大社会趋势的一部分，即公众对在科技决策中发挥作用的需求增加，这一趋势挑战了评估风险的科学标准以及专家对技术知识的主张。虽然欧洲理论家的“新社会运动理论”比资源动员理论能更好地解释有毒废物行动主义，但前一种理论并未考虑到有毒废物运动的阶级构成。本文讨论了发展一种新的社会运动理论以把握有毒废物行动主义复杂性的必要性。
