Alliances Across Borders, An Honors Thesis
I am posting this honors thesis in the Formosa Plastics Global Archive to promote accessibility of my findings to study participants.
Citizen science and stakeholders involvement
Metztli hernandezCITIZEN SCIENCE
Epistemic negotiation
Stakeholders (indigenous groups, activist, scientist, scholars, etc)
Mini Toy Building Set of Formosa Plastics Group Museum
Mini, Lego-like building set depicting the Formosa Plastics Group Museum in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Purchased from the museum souvenir shop and assembled by Zoe Friese.
FPG's Global Reach: Corporate Maps
Global map of Formosa Plastics activity sites, highlighting China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the United States as primary locations of facilities.
Petrochemical Display: Indigenous Traditional Weaving Statue
Artificial display of an indigenous person doing traditional weaving of fabrics in the Formosa Plastics Museum, located in Taoyuan, Taiwan.
CIEL Report: Formosa Plastics as a Case Study
zoefrieseCIEL's report is the first I have encountered to attempt to give a comprehensive analysis of Formosa Plastics and its impact on communities. The report breaks down the corporation's story into several sections: its origins and convoluted corporate structure, its primary products and common health risks of production, documented legal violations, and environmental justice threats. Together, the 100-page document covers significant ground, yet is readable in under an hour. It includes key statistics that are understandable without extensive background. I believe this report, as a mode of communication, finds an outstanding balance between accessible language, analysis, brevity, and detail. Activists and researchers alike should strive for the same qualities in their knowledge-sharing strategies.
Fight or Flight: A Story of Survival and Justice in Cancer Alley
zoefrieseGiven 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?
Fight or Flight: A Story of Survival and Justice in Cancer Alley
Environmental justice case study published in Tulane University's academic journal "Women Leading Change: Case Studies on Women, Gender, and Feminism."
Coverage of activism in university newspaper
zoefrieseI published this news article about a hunger strike against Formosa Plastics that occurred in Texas this fall. Despite the extremity of a 30-day hunger strike, the protesting tactic has not gained attention from national media outlets. At the time I published this article, two small environmental organizations had announced the beginning of the strike, but none continued to cover the event in the unfolding weeks. While activists are driven to take on dangerous protest tactics, little communication of these tactics has carried across mass media.
The article itself introduces Formosa Plastics through its reputation as a "serial offender" of environmental and workplace safety regulations. I list several statistics on legal fines that Formosa Plastics has accumulated overtime, using these quantities to demonstrate the scale of their harm to environmental and human health. An important limitation of this storytelling strategy, however, is that many of Formosa Plastics' actions go undocumented, and even when documented, do not lead to legal consequences. Furthermore, we should still strive to acknowledge the harms committed by Formosa Plastics that are technically within legal limits.
A traditional Chinese summary of the StoryMaps webpage associated with my thesis research findings.