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Local organizers harmed by global corporations can find solidarity and resources among other impacted localities. Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), a transnational petrochemical conglomerate from Taiwan, has caused environmental disasters and subsequent opposition movements in Vietnam, the U.S., and in their home country. Crossing physical and cultural borders, activists from these communities are using their shared knowledge and power to demand retribution. The International Monitor Formosa Alliance, or IMFA, represents the coordination of global anti-FPG activists to address localized issues. On October 31st, for example, activists converged in front of a FPG facility in Point Comfort, Texas to lead a Global Hunger Strike against the company's actions in Vietnam. Bringing together various networks and knowledges, the strike calls for justice years after the Ha Tinh Steel Plant in Vietnam released toxic pollutants, causing mass fish death in 2016. Diane Wilson, strike leader and Goldman Environmental Prize winner, has coordinated with Nancy Bui, leader of Justice for Formosa’s Victims, and other global activists to demand compensation for Vietnamese victims and release of imprisoned protestors. Their collaboration can serve as a model for other communities opposing global industry. 

Image source: Zoe Friese. 

Pictured: Activists (left to right) Nancy Bui, DIane Wilson and Sharon Lavigne with enviromental lawyer (far right) Marco Simons speaking at a confressional briefing about the 2016 Ha Tihn Steel Plant incident hosted by the IMFA.

Friese, Zoe. 2023. "The International Monitor Formosa Alliance: Addressing Local Issues with Global Alliances." 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. 

Place-making practices refer to the ways in which people create and define physical spaces as meaningful and significant through their everyday activities and social interactions.[1] In Ethnography, the study of these practices is often referred to as ‘ethnography as place-making,’ which involves the exploration of the cultural meanings and practices that shape the physical and social environments in which people live. This can include examining how people create and maintain social boundaries, how they express their identities and values through the built environment,[2] and how they negotiate power and control over the spaces they inhabit.

This place in Gröpelingen is made a place through the interaction of the people tending to the urban gardening project. 

1. Pink 2008, 178ff. 

2. See: urbanization 

3. Pink 2008, 190. 

This report was published by Human Rights Watch.

It appears that this is an NGO report. Human Rights Watch regularly publishes articles in an attempt to draw attention to percieved human rights issues throughout the world. They claim to be an independant organization supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations. They also deny accepting any government funds whether it be directly or indirectly.

The report was written to examine the severe increase in the number of internally displaced people in Bogot and Cartagena, Columbia. HRW was concerned with the number of people and families being forcibly displaced by paramilitary groups and their lack of access to education and public health services.

This report includes a glossary, a summary of the report and situation in Colombia, recommendations from HRW which address education, health needs, and the ability to return home, a section discussing the internal displacement in Colombia, registration and humanitarian assistance, a section discussing access to education, and a section which discusses access to public health services. The report concludes with a list of acknowledgements and a listing of other HRW reports on Colombia.

The data for this report were collected through over 70 interviews with people displaced from their homes and over 50 interviews with teachers, HCPs, activists, academics, lawyers, and government officials. In July and August 2004, with a follow-up visit to Bogot in September 2005.

This report discusses the adverse consequences that result from people being forcibly displaced from their homes. These consequences include reduced or eliminated access to public health and utilities, which can further exacerbate the problem because those native to the area where people are traveling can lose access when immigrants flood their systems.

This report doesn't have a great deal of impact with technical professionals. This report is much more geared toward those in the government in Colombia and actors in the international community. The report touches on the fact that hospitals and clinics are obligated to provide all persons with emergency care, but doesn't address emergency medicine more than that.

this report has spread to a number of academic institutions and their websites. This report seems to be relatively old, so I was unable to find any news reports that cited it. It appears that there are a number of other articles related to this topic; however, I was unable to find any direct connections between them and this report.