Advocacy means taking action to effect change in an issue that personally matters to you. Advocacy makes up a large portion of activity undertaken in community science projects. These projects often produce much-needed data about an environmental issue, and that data needs someone to speak for it [1] to different audiences:

• Your neighbors
• Elected representatives
• The press
• Regulatory agencies
• In court

This page is a place to collect and organize resources on advocacy. Visit the advocacy tag page to see the latest community posts about advocacy on Public Lab, and get updates on this topic by following:

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Also visit related pages on organizing, community science, and law and policy.

Sources: [1] @kgradow1’s presentation about the bucket air monitor.

Advocacy methods

Within the five main types of advocacy efforts (communicating with your neighbors, the press, elected representatives, regulators at government agencies, and through litigation in court), here are some particular processes that projects may seek to generate or contribute to:

• Horizontally:

  • Telling your story
  • Relationship building (see section on audiences, below)
  • Awareness raising & education
  • Community organizing
  • Mobilizing with those working on adjacent issues

• Increasing the reach of your message

  • Getting media coverage
  • Nonviolent direct action

• Bumping it up a level

  • Pressuring elected officials to act on an issue
  • Making an issue a focus of an electoral campaign season

• Engaging with environmental governance

  • Providing public input to established regulatory processes such as permitting for land uses that are continuing, changing, or new.
  • Providing cover to regulators so they can stand up to political/economic influence over an agency's action (Example: showing proof of valid grounds to sue the government agency for not acting)
  • Triggering agency investigation, administrative action, and/or enforcement action
  • Designing regulation in situations where there is none
  • Litigation against government agencies

• Interacting with more powerful corporate neighbors

  • Mediation with industry
  • Litigation against industry

Types of audiences projects may seek to reach:

• Others who are affected
• Neighbors who are also constituents
• Landowners making private land use decisions
• Elected representatives
• Agency civil servants
• Industry employees, management, ownership, or board of directors
• Journalists
• Environmental lawyers

Additional methods published on Public Lab and tagged with advocacy will appear on the advocacy methods page

Activities

Activities on Public Lab that have been tagged with activity:advocacy will appear here

Research notes

Research notes on Public Lab that have been tagged with advocacy will appear here

Wikis on advocacy

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