Background and Context

Kaohsiung developed from a maritime settlement into Taiwan's primary petrochemical and heavy industrial center through Japanese colonial industrialization and post-war state-led reconstruction. For decades, industrial expansion drove local prosperity while simultaneously producing environmental degradation, public health risks, and infrastructural vulnerability. Communities like Houjin, Dashe, Dalinpu, and Linyuan found themselves living on the frontlines of industrial hazards—their homes adjacent to refineries, their children's playgrounds downwind from petrochemical plants, their daily lives shadowed by the threat of explosions, air pollution, and chronic health impacts.

The turning point

The 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosion marked a critical turning point. The disaster exposed the dangers embedded in aging underground pipeline systems and intensified public scrutiny of petrochemical governance. Yet these tensions are not new. Movements such as the Houjin Anti-Fifth Naphtha Cracker campaign exemplify a long history of community resistance and negotiation, culminating in the closure of the plant in 2015 after 25 years of sustained mobilization by residents who had endured air pollution, health risks, and constant industrial encroachment.

The bigger picture

The Centre for Innovative Democracy and Sustainability (CIDS) engagement in Kaohsiung did not center on a single policy dispute, but on a broader question: How can a city with deep industrial dependencies cultivate communicative capacity for transition? The objective was to support platforms where residents, youth, and institutions could collectively reinterpret petrochemical legacies, document lived experiences, and explore pathways toward socio-environmental transformation.

Method and tool use

The Kaohsiung project combined Travel Camp methodology with digital humanities tools to create an accessible, participatory archive of environmental struggles.

Travel Camp Approach

The Travel Camp method centered on immersive fields visits across industrial zones and residential areas, where participants:

1. Gathered insights from residents, workers, local environmental groups, and government officials
2. Explored environmental, social, and historical dimensions of industrial coexistence
3. Engaged in role-play exercises assuming diverse stakeholder positions

Unlike traditional win-lose debates, this setup promoted openness and empathy, enabling participants to experiment with transition pathways while reflecting on tensions between economic growth, environmental hazards, public health, and values that fall outside expert or governmental frames.

Travel camps serve as both practice sites and learning spaces, where students explore conflict resolution and improve communication skills. Participants first research an issue and connect it to local context, then engage in simulated negotiations that train them to listen and respond in realistic settings.

Digital Archive Development

CIDS developed digital platforms that make environmental injustice visible and actionable. This work emphasized three interconnected outcomes: knowledge translation, digital visualization, and facilitation of social dialogue.

(Further information on the Travel Camp “Method” category.)

Influence, outcomes, and effects

CIDS emphasized three interconnected outcomes: knowledge translation, digital visualization, and the facilitation of social dialogue.

Digital Visualization

1. The Asthma Files (TAF) of the Kaohsiung Archive:An online platform documenting the health, environmental, and social impacts of petrochemical industry, structured to make complex technical information accessible to broader publics.
2. Interactive Story Maps: Four specialized maps for the communities of Dashe, Houjin, Dalinpu, and Linyuan that visualize the lived experiences and local narratives of residents living near industrial zones.
3. "Life on the Front Line" Pocket Guide:A bilingual handbook (Chinese/English) designed for communities, youth, and professionals navigating complex industrial transitions. The guide translates technically complex petrochemical knowledge into relatable terms, providing both factual grounding and action-oriented frameworks for engagement.

Knowledge Translation and the Facilitation of Social Dialogue

1. Kaohsiung "Life on the Front Line" Camp: With National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) youth camp project, this immersive experiential tour guided young participants through the realities of industrial transition, bringing translated knowledge to life through on-the-ground social dialogue.
2. Engage Stakeholders: By inviting readers to integrate personal histories and lived experiences, CID transforms them from passive consumers of history into co-creators of meaning.
3. Provide an Action-Oriented Framework: The development of the Life on the Front Line handbook serves as a tool for communities, youth, and professionals to navigate complex transitions.
4. Creation of a Safe Space for Social Dialogue
5. Illuminate Diverse Viewpoints without immediate pressure to reach consensus
6. Bridge Communication Gaps: by translating technically complex petrochemical knowledge into relatable terms
7. Empowerment through stakeholder simulation

Broader Implications

The Kaohsiung Archive demonstrates that environmental justice requires new forms of knowledge production and circulation. For cities undergoing industrial transition globally, the Kaohsiung model offers a replicable framework: use digital tools not merely for information dissemination but as platforms for collective sense-making, where diverse knowledge forms can encounter one another, where technical complexity can be rendered accessible without oversimplification, and where communities can see themselves not as victims but as agents of transformation.

The archive's bilingual design extends its reach beyond Taiwan, positioning Kaohsiung's struggles within global conversations about environmental justice, energy transition, and the right to healthy environments. In doing so, it transforms local resistance into shared knowledge that can support solidarity and learning across borders.

Note

For more details and to access the archive:

1. Interactive Story Maps: [Houjin, Dashe, Dalinpu, Linyuan] https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/d65aea0d289e450fab692272b9a0aa9c
2. The Asthma Files (TAF) Kaohsiung Archive：https://theasthmafiles.org/curate/pece-essay/kaohsiung/intro
3. "Life on the Front Line" Video https://youtu.be/o4-6xTL4WzE?si=3eTe4J_M4rgULLca