Standard Grant: Mobilized Social Group Organizations Around Per- and Polyfluoralkyl Substances

拟议的项目将审查在美国各地迅速形成的全国性、网络化的社会运动，以应对全氟化合物和多氟化合物的工业和军事用途，这类化合物有3000多种，对健康有广泛的不利影响。该项目将研究促进这一运动快速发展的因素，以及它影响科学、化学政策和清理水平的方式。该项目将使受PFAS污染影响的居民和社区团体更加了解他们如何参与科学过程、公共教育和地方、州和联邦层面的环境政策。它将在分散的社区之间，以及在研究这些问题的监管机构和科学家之间建立更大的联系。该项目有一个水测试部分，将提供有关受影响社区中全氟辛烷磺酸污染程度的直接知识和解释，并将用于显示广泛采用的补救方法在清除这些污染物方面的效果如何。研究小组将利用其污染地点数据库分析当地组织的特点，该数据库拥有美国77个污染地点的大量数据；新站点被发现后将被添加。该小组将定量和定性地评估影响当地社会运动组织是否在特定污染地点发展的因素（如污染特征、媒体报道的性质和人口统计数据），以及取得的成果（如补救、监管或咨询标准的转变以及生物监测活动）。该团队还将通过在美国20-30个地点进行80-100次半结构化访谈，分析这些社会运动组织的行动主义的起源、影响、优先事项和结果。团队成员还将使用网络分析技术对访谈数据和社交媒体帖子进行分析，以解释和可视化活动家如何分享信息、加入和扩展旧网络以及创建新网络。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposed project will examine the rapid formation of a national, networked social movement across the United States in response to industrial and military uses of per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFASs), a class of over 3,000 chemical compounds with a broad range of adverse health outcomes. The project will examine the factors facilitating the rapid development of this movement, and the ways in which it shapes science, chemical policy, and cleanup levels. This project will provide residents and community groups affected by PFAS contamination with a greater awareness of how they can partake in the scientific process, public education, and environmental policy at local, state and federal levels. It will create greater connections among dispersed communities, and among regulators and scientists working on these issues. The project has a water testing component that will provide direct knowledge and interpretation of the extent of PFAS contamination in an impacted community, and that will be used to show how effective widely adopted remedial methods are at removing these contaminants. The research team will analyze the characteristics of local organizing using its Contamination Site Database, which has extensive data for 77 contaminated sites across the U.S.; new sites are to be added as they are discovered. The team will quantitatively and qualitatively assess what factors influence whether local social-movement organizations develop at a given contamination site (such as contamination characteristics, nature of media coverage, and demographics), as well as the outcomes that are achieved (such as remediation, shift in regulatory or advisory standards, and biomonitoring activities). The team will also analyze the origins, influences, priorities, and outcomes of activism by these social movement organizations by conducting 80-100 semi-structured interviews in 20-30 locations across the U.S. Team members will also use network analysis techniques on interview data and social media posts to explain and visualize how activists share information, join and expand old networks, and create new ones.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.