Amplified Voices, Organized Ignorance, and Epistemic Justice: Examining the Impact of Community-Science Partnerships for Environmental Justice

Low-income communities and communities of color are at greater risk for natural disasters and face greater barriers to recovery than predominantly middle-class white communities. Environmental justice claims made by these communities frequently take place in a politically charged atmosphere against competing industrial economic demands. The experiential knowledge of those who live in communities at risk is often contested and downplayed against the claims of corporate and/or government experts. Here we use a community-engaged research approach to examine the impact of a community-science partnership that seeks to amplify the voices of a community impacted by repetitive flooding. The community-science partnership consists of environmental advocates, scientific experts, university partners, and community members. We document the ways in which the community-science partnership counteracts policymakers who favor economic development over disaster protection, but also faces county officials who engage in various tactics to maintain strategic ignorance and deflect scientific expertise it finds inconvenient to its economic priorities.