Activism Mobilizing Science Revisited

Minority groups and marginalized communities affected by extractive industries are increasingly allying with scientists to coproduce new alternative knowledge in order to challenge the data and narratives produced by the company or some state departments. Under the counter-expertise umbrella this process understood as Activism Mobilizing Science (AMS) is characterized by being driven by activists or local grassroots groups, where local and scientific knowledge are merged to coproduce new scientific knowledge. As we show through three case studies – two of uranium mines in Africa and an oil extraction case in the Peruvian Amazon – the main objective of these groups is to understand what are the negative impacts of extractive industry activities, to challenge the company’s or state’s discourse or data, and to gain legitimacy and visibility. We pose that the empowerment of these groups is as much a result of the newly coproduced knowledge as the dynamics of the AMS process itself.