PT Scientists, activists, and victims: Scientific expertise, experiences of suffering, and the claim for rights in the context of socio-environmental conflict

Abstract

This article analyzes the framing produced by scientists, activists, and victims surrounding an environmental crime-disaster. To do so, we analyzed 66 oral interventions made by scientists, affected residents, and civil society organizations during public hearings. The methodological tool used in this article was the analysis of the actors' profiles and the frames developed in response to the impacts caused by the disaster-crime. The research findings point to the existence of three interpretive communities: scientists, activists, and resident-victims. More broadly, these communities represent the groups mobilized around the denunciation of the impacts caused by Braskem's mining activities. The convergence between scientists, victims, community leaders, and representatives of non-governmental organizations occurred especially in their discursive arguments. It was found that the three representative communities mobilized scientific discourse, as well as its criteria and validation parameters, to critique the Technical-Participatory Diagnosis of the Sociourban Planning Actions (PAS), a subject of debate in the public hearings. In this sense, we can assert that the scientists' reports supported the other audiences and helped build a discourse advocating for rights and justice.