Rustbelt Theater and citizen science Children's environmental justice narratives

• Published in: Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies pp. 415 - 425
• Main Author: Lorenz, Lissette
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2022
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Critical Art Ensemble; Environmental Justice; CRISPR; Citizen Science Literature; Par Principle; Citizen Science Projects; Vice Versa; STS Scholar; Local Knowledge; Healthcare Inequality; Environmental Justice Issues; Community Based Participatory Research; MIT’s Center; Performance Ethnography; Citizen Science Participants; STS Research; Common Language; Fourth Grade Class; Citizen Science; Science Communication Project; Young Co-researchers; STS Theory; STS Communication; America’s Health Care System
• ISBN: 1138347302; 9781138347304; 9780367564926; 0367564920
• DOI: 10.4324/9780429437069-32

Citizen science efforts focusing on undone science and environmental justice are gaining traction in environmental justice, science communication, and science and technology studies literature. Despite the call for diversity within this literature, not enough attention is paid to children as knowledge-bearers of their environments, or to assessing the distribution of environmental benefits within communities. In this community-based research project conducted in partnership with Save Our Children, an afterschool enrichment center in South Elyria, Ohio, elementary school children utilized Theater of the Oppressed techniques to create an unscripted original play. I then combined field notes, interviews, and audiovisual materials of the rehearsals and final performance to produce the children’s script, and embedded it into a multi-vocal, multi-perspective ethnography of the project. The ethnography maintains the performative nature of the research process while drawing out themes related to children’s local knowledge and environmental justice. The children and staff members described environmental justice issues in South Elyria as structural barriers that limit access to adequate employment, education, housing, transportation, nutrition, recreation, and health care. This artistic project serves to broaden conceptions of citizen science.