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Residents of Love Canal, in the Niagara Falls region of Western New York, were alerted to signs of a toxic waste crisis involving the lethal chemical byproduct dioxin in the late 1970s. Residents learned about the crisis through news media, community activism and research, and their own visceral experiences – they could smell noxious fumes, noticed black sludge seeping into their basements, and saw children falling ill. Activists and academics carried out community-based research to survey the area in an effort to understand the extent of the hazard and its effects – data that they saw as missing, at the time – in turn generating evidence of changes in health and pregnancy abnormalities. In doing so, members of the community aimed to hold corporate and government stakeholders accountable to evacuate residents, organize remediation, and strengthen scientific studies and interventions to care for residents. Regional health authorities, however, dismissed community-based studies as “useless housewife data”. Activists responded by scrutinizing government and scientific studies, critiquing a lack of ecological validity and trustworthiness. Residents and community groups’ advocacy contributed to their exercise of epistemic authority, the creation of archival records and initiatives tracking the crisis over the last five decades, and wider public attention to Love Canal and other sites like it.

Image Description and Source: "Map showing distribution of symptoms believed to be caused by Love Canal pollutants," Digital Collections - University at Buffalo Libraries, May 1982.

Shankar, Saguna. 2023. "What's the Use of Data? Epistemic Authority and Environmental Injustice at Love Canal." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali. Kim Fortun, Phillio Baum and Prerna Srigyvan. Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawaiti, Nov 8-11.

Lozi people living on the vast Zambezi (Barotse/Bulozi) floodplain in Western Province, Zambia, are experienced agriculturalists long adapted to seasonal patterns of flooding and drought. Compounded histories of colonialism, administrative disenfranchisement and neglect, extractive activities, and the concomitant reduction of territory and authority have impoverished the regional ecology and people. Increased climatic variability and other ecological challenges threaten Lozi ways of life, crops, and biodiversity more generally. Fish stock depletion is a major challenge reportedly partially caused by chemical contamination from insecticide treated mosquito nets used for fishing, other poison-based fishing methods, and from a Canadian mining company’s activities there. A Chinese construction company that built the bridge spanning the floodplain reportedly cultivated shrimp and snail species that threaten native fish populations. While seasonal fish bans are in place, their timing does not always correspond with traditional bans, and increased hunger (along with the impossibility of enforcement) renders such bans ineffective. In addition, some fish species have disappeared altogether. Biodiversity losses, which include water serpents deemed to be responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of the river, impact biopolitical life, cultural heritage and TEK. Appeals to UNESCO for Heritage status and WWF projects are underway and may confer some protection, however local suspicion remains due to prior agreement violations (with other bodies).

Liu, Jennifer. 2023. "Mapping otherwise?: weaving waterscape knowledges" In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

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