Refining Expertise

Refining Expertiseis the fascinating story of New Sharpy, a small community in Louisiana, USA. This community actively opposes the neighboring refinerys health and environment claims but suddenly ceases its opposition and accedes to the refinerys expertise. As such, Ottinger ethnographic analysis of the New Sharpy case shows how American petrochemical facilities may thwart environmental justice activism and attempts to democratize science. * European Association of Social Anthropologists *
Who has authority? Specifically, what makes people experts, with the authority to speak on scientific topics? In this descriptive 'contribution to our collective understanding,' Ottinger (Univ. of Washington-Bothell; coeditor, with B. Cohen, Technoscience and Environmental Justice) relates the experiences of concerned citizens in New Sarpy, Louisiana, who felt that their health was being adversely impacted by a nearby oil refinery....Overall, Ottinger advocates support for the 'democratization of science,' i.e., opening technical issues to public dialogue. * Choice *
An intriguing and impressive account of corporate social responsibilityand neoliberalism writ largeon the ground, in action, in chemical plant communities in Louisiana. The storytelling is rich, the analysis is crisp. Ottinger effectively draws out what Gramsci termed a passive revolutionhow, in complex, culturally saturated ways, corporate commitment to `responsible care has created critical challenges for environmental activism and justice. -- Kim Fortun,Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Builds on STS studies and close ethnographic research to provide a sophisticated analysis of remarkable changes in corporate claims to expertise and in the responses of environmental justice activists. Written with a good storytellers sense of drama and timing, this book engages the reader with a visceral sense of neoliberal cultural terrain and how it infiltrates actors subjectivities and identities to subtly constrain community-industry relations and block the democratization of knowledge. -- Dorothy Holland,co-author of Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics
Gwen Ottinger's powerful and beautifully written Refining Expertisetells a different story: she shows, through exceptionally rich ethnographic and interview evidence and sophisticated theoretical observation, that the ways that industry experts frame themselves and their companies as political actors has a profound effect on de-fanging opposition....Ottinger makes a strong case that her research shows that citizen participation in environmental policy creation must be required. The high costs of activism, the lack of state regulatory protection, and the sophisticated means by which activism is channeled mean that it is unrealistic to think that citizens can expect that their own activities can pressure regulatory agencies and industry to protect them from environmental harms. Companies are now the new 'governors' and the state is the broker. The only way to ensure environmental protection in this situation, Ottinger argues, is by having citizens help write environmental protection laws themselves. The evidence and careful reasoning in Refining Expertisemakes it hard to disagree. -- Kelly Moore * Journal of Responsible Innovation *
Ottinger's book is lucid, well written, and it analyses with great precision and sensitivity the concessions, compromises, and contradictions that have been generated out of New Sarpy's and Norco's encounters with the oil industry. For readers with a critical interest in governmentality studies, community development, corporate social responsibility, and citizen science that are rich insights to be found. -- Rosie R. Meade * Antipode *