Framing Justice: A Theoretical Analysis of the Environmental Justice Movement

• In Event: 254 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Environmental Justice

Abstract

Much of the work done in the tradition of environmental sociology has helped scholars to understand the underlying causes of ecological crises and rifts caused by human organization of society. The same social and economic system implicated as a key driver of ecological degradation is also primarily responsible for generating social inequalities. For this reason, associated distribution of exposure to attendant environmental hazard has tended to mirror existing hierarchies of race and class (and their corresponding privilege). According to Faber and McCarthy (2003), contemporary environmental and social injustices through processes of development “are now so dialectically related (if not essential) to each other as to become part of the same historical process” (45). Environmental Justice (EJ) research has addressed many of these concerns and has helped grassroots movements fighting environmental injustices to gain traction (and vice versa). This paper will seek to explore the historical development of the EJ subfield within environmental sociology and its counterpart, the Environmental Justice Movement (EJM). I will also survey some of the most important and influential theoretical frames from within the field including environmental racism (and its limitations), racial identity formation, environmental inequality formation and ecological debt.

Author

• Brian Rosenberg, University of Oregon