Anth 469 Envir 450, 2002 Quarter
Special Topics: Cultures and Politics of Environmental Justice

Schedule

SEPTEMBER

M-30      Introduction to the course and review of syllabus.

I. History of the Environmental Justice Movement

OCTOBER

W-2      A century of precursors (1870-1970). The emergence of the environmental justice movement (EJM) in the 1980’s. Conceptualizing environmental racism: geographic, procedural, and organizational inequities. “We Speak for Ourselves.” The Principles of Environmental Justice (October 1991).

Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 3-52.

Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. xix-xx; 3-26


M-7      EJ and the “Group of Ten.” Environmental racism and the EPA.

Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 53-61

Pulido, Environmentalism and economic justice, pp. 3-30.


II. Theorizing Environmental Racism


W-9      Theories of disproportionate impacts and environmental risks. Is it race? Class? Or both?

Faber, The struggle for ecological democracy, pp. 1-26; 60-103.

Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 27-53; 55-86.


M-14      The EJ paradigm, framing, and social movement theory

ER: Dorceta Taylor (2000) The emergence of the environmental justice paradigm: Injustice framing and the social construction of environmental discourses. American Behavioral Scientist 43:508-580.

ER: Laura Pulido and Devon G. Peña (1998) Environmentalism and positionality: The early pesticide campaign of the United Farm Workers’ Organizing Committee, 1966-71. Race, Gender and Class 6:33-50.

Assignment Note: Topic for policy paper must be submitted for approval.


W-16      From the critique of environmental racism to the search for just sustainabilities. EJ, place, and identity politics. The challenge of “strategic essentialism.”


ER: Devon G. Peña (2002) Identity, place, and communities of resistance. In: Just Sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world, eds. Julian Ageyman, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans. London: Earthscan.

ER: Laura Pulido (1998) Development of the ‘people of color’ identity in the environmental justice movement in the Southwestern United States. Socialist Review 26:145-180.

Pulido, Environmentalism and economic justice, pp. 31-56.

Assignment Note: Selected text for book review must be approved.


II. Environmental Justice Struggles: Community Case Studies

M-21      African American communities, I.

Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 63-106.


W-23      Students meet for discussion session (exchange ideas on policy papers). EJ Summit II (Washington, D.C., Oct 23-27). Read!


M-28      Brief report by Professor Peña on EJ Summit II. African American communities, II.

Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 107-122.

Adamson, et al., Environmental justice reader, pp. 82-104.           


NOVEMBER

M-4      Chicano and other Latino communities, I.


Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 123-178.

Adamson, et al., Environmental justice reader, pp. 44-81.

           
W-6      Chicano and other Latino communities, II.


Faber, The struggle for ecological democracy, pp. 293-348.

Pulido, Environmentalism and economic justice, pp. 57-124.


M-11      Native American communities, I.
           
Faber, The struggle for ecological democracy, pp. 272-292.

Adamson, et al., Environmental justice reader, pp. 265-283.


W-13      Native American communities, II.

Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 421-460.


M-18      Asian and Pacific Islander communities.


Adamson, et al., Environmental justice reader, pp. 125-144.


W-20      Intersections of race, class, and gender. Multiracial EJ networks.

Faber, The struggle for ecological democracy, pp. 104-136; 159-187.

Adamson, et al., Environmental justice reader, pp. 194-212.


III. Environmental Justice in Law, Public Policy, and Regulation

M-25      The science and politics of risk assessment. Critiques of the “cult of expertise.”


Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 87-132.

ER: Les Levidow (1992) The Eleventh Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 3:117-124.

ER: Devon G. Peña and Joseph C. Gallegos (1997) Local knowledge and collaborative environmental action research. In: Building community: Social science in action, eds. Philip Nyden, et al. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, pp. 85-91.

Assignment Note: Book review essays are due at the beginning of class.


W-27      The socio-political and legal construction of standards of risk and exposure.

Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 133-159.


DECEMBER

M-2      EJ litigation. The rise and fall of Title VI strategies.


Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 245-296.

ER: Robert D. Bullard (2000) Analysis of Title VI implications of the Seattle line project.
Expert witness report prepared for the case of Save Our Valley v. Sound Transit.

ER: Devon G. Peña (2000) Environmental justice analysis of the Sound Transit light rail preferred alternative and FEIS. Expert witness report prepared for the case of Save Our Valley v.
Sound Transit.


W-4      Interagency initiatives and models for state-civil society collaborative relationships: Executive Order 12898 and NEJAC.


Rechtschaffen and Gauna, Environmental justice, pp. 391-420.     


IV. Environmental Justice and Globalization

M-9      Globalization and the EJM.


Bullard, Confronting environmental racism, pp. 179-194.
Faber, The struggle for ecological democracy, pp. 218-247.


W-11      Sustainable development and the EJM.


      To be determined.


M-16      Assignment Note: Policy papers are due no later than 12 noon. I leave for a trip the following day. Any papers submitted late cannot be graded over the winter break; this may result in an incomplete or no-credit for the course.