Analyze

Given the vastness of Formosa Plastics' influence, there are many ways to tell its story to the world. As environmental justice activists and researchers, how do we describe a company and its negative impact when there is so much to say? Limited by time, word count, and the audience's attention span, we must decide what goes unsaid. As a result, we could write countless answers to the same question, "What is Formosa Plastics?"

In this published academic case study, I introduce Formosa Plastics through a local lens--specifically, through the eyes of a grandmother-turned-activist in the small town of Welcome, Louisiana. Her family's history with social justice activism, as well as the area's connection to centuries of slavery, make the environmental racism of Formosa Plastics' Sunshine Project especially salient. Although Formosa Plastics is a global force, telling its story on the microscale is an equally important perspective. After all, in Sharon Lavigne's eyes, her small town is her world. How many of these little worlds have Formosa Plastics destroyed as they wreak havoc across international borders?

The photo essay captures the complexity of place and the intersectional challenges embedded in everyday life in Asuza. In particular your discussion of encampments (a problem endemic to the wilderness areas in the Foothills as well as urban areas like washes, and under freeways) is much appreciated because it is something residents encounter all the time and yet there is a generalize silence about this topic. 

I feel, as in all our work on the SGV, the greater Los Angeles metropole has such an huge influence on the area--on traffic, the housing market, schools etc. I would like to see this essay embedded within multiple studies of Southern California, including mapping projects that connect it regionally to other communities as well as locally enmeshed institutions that shape the daily lives of local inhabitants.

this diagram shows how different age groups suffer from povert.  as the years in age grow larger, the higher the numbers in poverty.