Theoretical Perspectives on Environmental Inequalities

1. Theoretical Perspectives on
Environmental Inequalities
Isabelle Anguelovski, UAB-ICTA
July, 3, 2012

2. Multiple dimensions of
Environmental (In)justices

3. Justice as Distribution
Environmental Injustice: Unequal division of environmental
bads, risks, and goods  This must be addressed
Rawls:
Justice is the appropriate division of social advantages
Need for more social redistribution and equity
Walzer:
Different things are valued differently by people, which
means that the very criteria for distribution will differ
according to how we value things
Distributive Sphere (conceptions of Justice are limited in
place and time)

4. Justice as Recognition
Iris Marion Young:
Injustices exist because of a lack of recognition of individuals
(i.e., women) and groups (i.e., African Americans, indigenous
people)
This lack of recognition impairs people in their positive
understanding of themselves – oppression and dehumanization
Honneth:
Three kinds of disrespect: violation of the body, denial of rights,
and denigration of ways of life
Need for developing self-esteem, voice, and self-
empowerment for individuals and groups
People must be recognized for their particular distinctiveness
(Politics of difference as defined by Taylor)

5. Justice as Procedure
Injustices stem from a lack of voice in decision-making and
participation
Young:
Need to eliminate institutionalized domination and oppression
and promote democratic decision-making procedures.
Enhanced participation can address issues of distribution
and cultural misrecognition.
Conclusion: There is an interplay of Equity, Recognition
and Participation in Environmental Justice:
These 3 concepts must be fully integrated.
The 3 notions of J must be also interrelated

6. Justice as Capabilities
Focus on individual agency, functioning, and well
being (Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum)
Person's opportunities to do and be what they choose
in the context of a given society
Focus on individual agency, functioning, and well-
being.

7. Environmental Injustices:
Processes and Actors

8. Social Metabolism and Global Trade
Globalization of extraction and production
Treadmill of production: Continued need of the capitalist
economy for investment to generate goods for sale on the
market, which puts increasing pressure on natural
resources and increases social inequalities
Life cycle of products difficult to track
Role of capital and its movement/relocation
Continuous restructuring of spatial reconfiguration for
capital
Cycles of capitalization and development with
desinvestment and abandon
Failed transnational schemes

9. Individual Behavior of Corporations
Lobbying and political collusion
Unfair labor practices
Low environmental standards
Lack of consultation of affected communities
Purchase of small businesses by large
corporations

10. Role of the State
National political projects:
colonization of remote regions
Rebuilding economy
Lack of regulation of env. and labor issues
Not adequate and democratic forms of decision-making
Weak monitoring and enforcement agencies
Multi scale policies:
Local policies (ex. Zoning laws favoring suburban business
development, white flight and urban renewal in US ciities)
National policies (ex: farm subsidies and food stamps)
Corruption around contracts and bidding, development and
redevelopment programs

11. Alliances and Dynamics
Growth machine:
Confluence of stakeholders who manage to
frame a problem a certain way
Alliances between banks, real estate,
designers, planners
Alliance between state, international financial
institutions, and international corporations
Socio-spatial dynamics
Groups with contradictory and shifting interests
and allegiances

12. Environmental Movements
Environmentalists with one-sided view (at least in
some countries)
Over-value given to scientific studies rather than
lay knowledge
Weaker local movements in comparison with
national organizations willing to compromise and
work on smaller objectives, often at the detriment
of local realities
Not able to rebuild the entirety of systems
(ex.food systems)

13. Racist Practices
Lack of valuation of poor and minority community
health (people of color, indigenous people, etc)
Non recognition of people’ and group’ needs and
preferences
Racism by white workers and unions
Private practices: Redlining, high risk rating of
neighborhoods, high mortgage rates, no housing
subsidy or preference for black people
Public policies favoring business in suburbs or richer
communities and sponsoring white flight & urban
renewal

14. Lack of Political Power
Lack of access to decision-makers and to
resources to defend oneself.
Forms of resistance that reshape environmental
inequalities
Deeper history and processes of env. inequalities
and soc. Inequalities
Lack of adequate participation spaces in decision-
making

15. Processes and Actors: The example of food
deserts
Food desert: Area “with limited access to affordable and
nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of
predominately lower income neighborhoods and
communities” (USDA 2009).
In the US and UK, food deserts disproportionately impact
people of color (Smoyer-Tomic, Spence, and Amrhein 2006; Beaulac,
Kristjansson, and Cummins 2009)
Available food reduced to corner stores, convenience
stores, and fast food restaurants: low availability of fruit
and vegetables, over-presence of saturated fat and sugars
Food deserts directly related to food security, obesity, and
cardiovascular diseases
Structural role of capital and political decisions in leading
to the development of food deserts

16. Picture 4

17. Picture 2

18. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD DESERTS
Reshaping of Ecosystemic Processes
Broader Policies:
-Subsidies for suburban investment
- Dispersal of industry and workers
- Conservative tax policy DEMARCATED
DEVALUATION
Urban Planning:
- Zoning - Dilapidated
- Low-income housing in lowlands post- industrial
- Urban renewal and new landscape
transportation corridors -Desinvestment FOOD
- High DESERTS
Corporations:
unemployment
- Redlining
- Splitting up of
- Move towards a service economy
neighborhood
rather than old industrial and agric. economy
- Closure of retail
- Large supermarkets in suburbs
and of
(independent)
Individual Groups:
- Racist homeowner associations and voters supermarkets
- Exclusionary labor movement
- Lack of poor resident resources and access
to decision-making

19. Core Concepts

20. • Environmental Racism: Extension of racism. Institutional
rules, regulations, policies, or corporate decisions that
deliberately target certain minority communities for least
desirable land uses, resulting in the disproportionate exposure
of toxic and hazardous. Unequal protection against toxic and
hazardous waste exposure and the systematic exclusion of
people of color from decisions affecting their communities
• Environmental Justice : Cultural norms and values, rules,
regulations, behaviors, policies, and decisions to support
sustainable communities where people can interact with
confidence that the environment is safe, nurturing, and
productive. Is supported by decent paying safe jobs; quality
schools and recreation; decent housing and adequate health
care; democratic decision-making and personal
empowerment; and communities free of violence, drugs, and
poverty. Community cultural and biological diversity are
respected and distributed justice prevails

21. • Environmental Inequality: Broader dimensions of the
intersection between environmental quality and social
hierarchies. Addresses questions such as the unequal
distribution of power and resources in society.
• Environmental Inequality Formation: Different
stakeholders struggle for access to scarce resources
within the political economy, with the benefits and costs
of those resources unevenly distributed and accessed
• Life Cycle Analysis: Study of the origin, use, and
disposal of products, which helps us understand the full
costs and benefits of production and consumption on
people, communities, or ecosystems

22. • Treadmill of production: Continued need of the
capitalist economy for investment in order to generate
goods for sale on the market, which puts increasing
pressure on natural resources and increases social
inequalities
• Stakeholder Analysis in Environmental Injustice:
Analysis of all the actors, institutions and organizations
(state, corporate, non profit, civil society, etc) which all
have a stake in the pursuit or resolution of a particular
conflict. Their position and alliances might shift over time
based on their interest.

23. • Spatial injustice: Unequal allocation of socially valued
resources (i.e. jobs, political power, social status,
income, social services, environmental goods) in
space, as well as unequal opportunities to make use of
these resources over time
• Environmental Double Movement: Economic
activities, contributing to significant environmental
problems in the context of a self-regulating market,
which in return spurs social movements dedicated to
reducing the severity of these problems through
political, social, and cultural change.