‘Lead-polluted water changed our lives’: a Thai-Karen village’s quest for environmental justice
‘Lead-polluted water changed our lives’: a Thai-Karen village’s quest for environmental justice
At the turn of the millennium, inhabitants of a small Karen village situated in one of Thailand’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites sought access to environmental justice in the Thai courts over industrial pollution that had contaminated their local stream with lead and caused them years of degraded health and social misery. The Karen villagers were only able to gain access to justice with the help of NGOs that served them as a support group during a period when Thailand was experiencing active civil and democratic awakening. The NGOs, which had a common cause with the Karen villagers, helped them enter the ‘environmental justice frame’ and its discourse. Their experience of lead pollution was framed within a moral ‘rhetoric of exposure’, which came to guide their activism against intransigent agencies and policies, as well as their mobilization for access to justice.
Industrial Pollution, Karen (Thailand), Lead pollution, health civic activism, environemntal illness
139-156
Sithhikriengkrai, Malee
b1a46997-d177-4e82-8a7a-aa6cdc1b30de
Porath, Nathan
3ec6e51c-ceb8-46e2-8fd0-71a416f0f095
6 June 2017
Sithhikriengkrai, Malee
b1a46997-d177-4e82-8a7a-aa6cdc1b30de
Porath, Nathan
3ec6e51c-ceb8-46e2-8fd0-71a416f0f095
Sithhikriengkrai, Malee and Porath, Nathan
(2017)
‘Lead-polluted water changed our lives’: a Thai-Karen village’s quest for environmental justice.
South East Asia Research, 25 (2), .
(doi:10.1177/0967828X17706566).
Abstract
At the turn of the millennium, inhabitants of a small Karen village situated in one of Thailand’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites sought access to environmental justice in the Thai courts over industrial pollution that had contaminated their local stream with lead and caused them years of degraded health and social misery. The Karen villagers were only able to gain access to justice with the help of NGOs that served them as a support group during a period when Thailand was experiencing active civil and democratic awakening. The NGOs, which had a common cause with the Karen villagers, helped them enter the ‘environmental justice frame’ and its discourse. Their experience of lead pollution was framed within a moral ‘rhetoric of exposure’, which came to guide their activism against intransigent agencies and policies, as well as their mobilization for access to justice.
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Published date: 6 June 2017
Keywords:
Industrial Pollution, Karen (Thailand), Lead pollution, health civic activism, environemntal illness
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Local EPrints ID: 439311
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439311
PURE UUID: dddbafea-4668-4206-bea1-6010653885b4
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Date deposited: 08 Apr 2020 16:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:26
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Author:
Malee Sithhikriengkrai
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