Dear colleagues,

A new book entitled, Street Science: Community Knowledge and
Environmental Health Justice, by Jason Corburn is now available from MIT
Press (http://mitpress.mit.edu).  

When environmental health problems arise in a community, policymakers
must be able to reconcile the first-hand experience of local residents
with recommendations by scientists. In this highly original look at
environmental health policymaking, Jason Corburn shows the ways that
local knowledge can be combined with professional techniques to achieve
better solutions for environmental health problems. He traces the
efforts of a low-income community in Brooklyn to deal with health
problems in its midst and offers a framework for understanding "street
science" -- decision making that draws on community knowledge and
contributes to environmental justice.

Like many other low-income urban communities, the
Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn suffers more than its
share of environmental problems, with a concentration of polluting
facilities and elevated levels of localized air pollutants. Corburn
looks at four instances of street science in Greenpoint/Williamsburg,
where community members and professionals combined forces to address the
risks from subsistence fishing from the polluted East River, the asthma
epidemic in the Latino community, childhood lead poisoning, and local
sources of air pollution. These episodes highlight both the successes
and the limits of street science and demonstrate ways residents can
establish their own credibility when working with scientists. Street
science, Corburn argues, does not devalue science; it revalues other
kinds of information and democratizes the inquiry and decision-making
processes.

About the Author
Jason Corburn is Assistant Professor in the School of International and
Public Affairs and the Urban Planning Program in the Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. From
1996 to 1998, he was a senior environmental planner with the New York
City Department of Environmental Protection. 

Endorsements

"I have rarely read a professional book that has had more of an impact
on me, and it's been years since I found one as engrossing as Corburn's
Street Science. This is an amazing volume, and one that should quickly
become a classic."
-- Meredith Minkler, Professor of Health and Social Behavior, School of
Public Health, University of California, Berkeley 

"Street Science shows vividly how local knowledge, inquiry, and
organizing can extend the reach and refine the focus of established
professional expertise. Jason Corburn's environmental and public health
cases enrich contemporary planning, action research, and the search for
environmental health and justice too."
--John Forester, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning,
Cornell University 

"Street Science adds an important new dimension to the literature on
environmental justice by insightfully and systematically examining how
community-based knowledge contributes to scientific inquiry. The book is
an invaluable resource to both community activists and professional
scientists."
--Charles Lee, author, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States 

Further Information:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10559