‘If there's no evidence, there's no victim’: undone science and political organisation in marginalising women as victims of DBCP in Nicaragua

Abstract

Victims of pesticides are often disregarded when demanding reparations and political action because of the ‘undone science.’ Studies have examined how people organise to rectify the ‘undone science’, but less is known about how the ‘undone science’ permeates local organisations to direct their strategies in acknowledging some, but not others, as victims of pesticide contamination. Using the case of plantation workers’ struggle to demand redress for ailments caused by the pesticide Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) in Nicaragua, I analyse how what counts as ‘evidence’ shapes the struggle and how, in the process, women’s lived experience of harm is not prioritised.