Sociologist Builds Bridges between Labor, Environmental Activists

by Allison Whitney '05

Environmentalists, in their zeal to promote ecological health, often alienate the very people who could be their best allies, says Brian Mayer. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, Mayer studies how labor and environmental groups can form lasting alliances.

Take workplace hazards. For many workers, their primary focus is protecting their steady income, not worrying about environmental health issues. When environmental groups set up protests outside a power plant, for instance, workers may feel the need to side with industry because support for the protestors may cost workers their jobs.

Mayer argues that with a common focus on education, alliances can frame the environmental issue as a health issue, or a right-to-information issue. Forming an alliance is a process of constructing identities so that no boundaries are created among the different members.

Because of his work on environmental alliances, Mayer recently received a two-year fellowship with the Environmental Leadership Program. The fellowship is awarded yearly to a number of young leaders who are trying to bring innovation to the environmental movement. It will give Mayer a chance to connect with others in the field and learn about their experiences tackling similar problems.

Much of Mayer's research for his dissertation is on four environmental activist groups across the country, each with different strategies for building a coalition between its labor and environment members. He spends a couple of weeks every year with each organization, identifying what issues are important to them, and what issues bring them together.

The organization he works most closely with is the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, a citizens group based in Massachusetts. Mayer had the opportunity to watch this new alliance emerge and see the problems it faced as it tried to bring different members of the community together.

The Alliance's rallying point is the precautionary principle, the idea that manufacturers should ensure that a chemical does no harm before it goes on the market. Followers of this principle believe that too much of environmental law is based on chemicals being presumed innocent until found harmful, which allows industry to forgo testing their products before selling them.

"I try to bridge academics and activism," Mayer said. "I want to create social change and really help these groups without moving away from scientific objectivity." While observing the Alliance in Massachusetts, Mayer also has imparted some of his knowledge about sociological studies. For example, he recently helped the group design a survey to test people's knowledge of household pesticides.

Mayer first grew interested in the interactions between stakeholders in environmental issues as an undergraduate at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Hoping to pass on his interest in the field of environmental sociology, he plans to continue in academia when he finishes his dissertation, and offer his research skills to community groups. "It is informative and empowering to think about society and environment. I want to offer that to college kids."