台塑關係企業麥寮工業園區，簡稱六輕，是全世界規模最大的石化園區之一。近年來詹長權、莊秉潔等學者揭露六輕汙染排放與居民罹病的顯著相關，引起輿論關注。令人詫異的是，麥寮居民對於這些污染指控，卻普遍抱持懷疑的態度，認為環團與專家係貪圖金錢和政治利益而刻意汙衊六輕。身為麥寮人，我認為六輕議題不只是單純的「經濟發展vs.環境保護」二元對立，而是各在地行動者競奪科學知識權威性與政治經濟資源的鬥爭場域。因此，理解科學知識如何在行動者之間生產、宣傳、詮釋、再生產，以及這些過程如何與地方脈絡中的政治、經濟等社會層面進行互動，就成為分析六輕環境爭議的關鍵。據此，除了回顧了科技與社會研究 (STS) 的次領域「公眾理解科學」(public understanding of science,PUS) 以及工業人類學對於常民知識的觀點，我也將人文地理學關於信任 (trust)的探討帶入環境公害研究中，並透過為期一年的田野調查，探究麥寮居民不為環團所動員的原因。本文發現，面對污染指控，六輕使用形式上中立客觀的政府數據和學術研究進行反擊，營造出尚未定論的科學爭議狀態。其次，六輕也透過免費健檢與衛教宣導，強調「個人」的生活習慣才是罹病的主因，迴避了工業排放增加「群體」罹病「比率」的指控。第三，麥寮居民也以長期生活得來的身體經驗、環境感知、科學詮釋等「常民知識」，質疑汙染的嚴重性被過度地誇大。最後，由於上級政府在偏遠鄉村的執政失能，引發了居民對於政府「人前嚴格管制，人後手軟拿錢」雙面形象的強烈不滿，甚至認為科學家與環團對六輕的指控均是向企業勒索的圖利手段。要之，本文認為，要回答「麥寮居民為何動不起來」，研究者得檢視科學知識及信賴的地理學。這意味著：在探討科學知識於地方及尺度間的傳播時，研究者有必要檢視科學家與環團在從事科學傳播時採用的信任技術，且將之放在讓信賴得以流動或產生遲滯的網絡中考察。

The No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex (No. 6 NCC), located in Mailiao, Yunlin County, is one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world. A large body of literature from 2009 until now has shown that the complex is a major source of air pollutants, and therefore its existence per se has constituted a great threat to local residents’ health. Surprisingly, residents of Mailiao are not convinced by data and evidence that scientists in public health have systematically gathered and scientifically presented against No. 6 NCC. The residents have challenged the neutrality and validity of this anti-No.6 NCC research and have remained silent and ignorant for the past decade or so, despite efforts of environmentalists’ and scientists’ in mobilizing them to join their campaign against No. 6 NCC. To consider why do not Mailiao residents stand up for their own health and right to life, and how is the local made not to work? To answer the above questions, this study explores the intersection among public understanding of science, industrial anthropology, and geography of scientific knowledge. Based onone year of fieldwork in Mailiao, this studyargue that Mailiao residents’ silence and ignorance result from the following three factors: (1) the “scientific war” launched by No. 6 NCC against the anti-No. 6 NCC research, as well as the ways in which the No. 6 NCC popularizes and disseminates their pro-No. 6 NCC research among Mailiao residents; (2) the inconsistency between residents’ bodily experiences and the anti-No. 6 NCC research, which results fromNo. 6 NCC’s “biopolitics” to discipline the residents’ sense of the body, and to take care of their life and health, and 3: residents’ moral economies in which the anti-No. 6 NCC campaign is considered to be greedy profit-seekers who care nothing whatsoever about residents’ welfare. In summary, this study argues that to answer “why Mailiao residents are made not to work” has to take seriously the geography of scientific knowledge and of trust. That is, how scientific knowledge travels across space or jumps over scales depend upon scientists’ technology of trust, and the success of the technology has to be examined vis-à-vis the network through which trust flows and stumbles.