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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Hansen, Elizabeth (MA). An evaluation of the community participation policy of the EPA’s Superfund Program: An anthropological perspective, (Purcell) 2002.
This thesis is a presentation of work done as a Fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (OERR) Community Involvement and Outreach Center (CIOC). The CIOC's mission is to advocate and strengthen early and meaningful community participation during the Superfund cleanup process. The project is an evaluation of the Superfund's Community Involvement Plan (CIP), which is intended to serve as the foundation for community participation in the cleanup process of a Superfund site, and, on a macro level, of the Superfund's community participation policy. My methodology consisted of the following: (1) the selection of a research site, the Former Nansemond Ordnance Depot in Suffolk, Virginia; (2) the collection of data on the perspectives of the EP A staff who implement the policy, the Community Involvement Coordinators (CICs), and the members of a community near a Superfund site who directly experience the policy. For this aspect of the research I conducted semi-structured interviews with the CICs; (3) I employed archival research and rapid appraisal procedures at the Nansemond community. Analysis of my data indicated that the CIP is not used as a tool to achieve the vast majority of its intended functions, and is not the most effective instrument to form the foundation of the community participation efforts. Also, I found that the Superfund's community participation policy is not comprehensive, and, in many cases, the community participation efforts are merely token or symbolic. I also conclude that within the EPA, and mirroring the predominant view of contemporary "Western" society, knowledge from experimental science is the apex of the hierarchy of knowledge, and that this contributes to he marginalization of community participation.
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