Environmental Justice: An Examination of Interaction Between Environmental Justice Activists and Opponents

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SES-0211105Dorceta E. TaylorUniversity of MichiganEnvironmental justice advocates oppose locating facilities (like incinerators, landfills, waste-treatment plants, and chemical factories) in minority communities in the U.S. They maintain that such facilities expose minorities to disproportionate environmental risks, hazards, and dangerous working and living conditions that, in turn, lead to impaired health. Economic conditions are important too because activists frequently operate in low-income, minority communities with high unemployment. The environmental justice movement has been opposing corporations for two decades, very little is known about the dynamics of the movement or its potential for social change. Hence, this study will examine (a) the relationship between the environmental justice movement and their main targets of influence or opponents - mainstream environmental groups, the government and corporations; (b) the range and effectiveness of movement tactics used by environmental justice activists; (c) how movement opponents adapt and respond to the tactical innovations of activists; and (d) the relationship between resource mobilization and movement insurgency.This study will examine environmental justice activism and government and corporate responses to it from 1980-2005. This time frame captures the full period of American environmental justice activism allowing the PI to track the rise of the environmental justice movement. The study will use a multi-method approach to data collection and analysis. The study has three basic components: (a) a newspaper event history analysis of environmental justice issues, (b) an analysis of environmental justice organizations' accounting of the activities they have been engaged in, and (c) an examination of the amount of funds organizations receive from foundations and government (environmental) agencies. The researcher will use Lexis/Nexis, OCLC Firstsearch and Proquest to find relevant articles that appear in local, regional and national newspapers, journals and magazines. Newspapers will be the primary source of the event history analysis. However, other sources -- like published case studies -- will be used for contextual information on particular issues. . A database will be established to record the structure, ideology, and actions in which organizations report they have been engaged. This database will be compiled from surveys organizations listed in the People of Color Environmental Groups Directory (1994, 2000), from websites and information gathered from funders. The unit of analysis is the environmental justice movement. Though organizational-level data is being collected, analysis will be made at movement level. This study will provide valuable information on institutional and tactical interactions between the environmental justice movement, its opponents and supporters. It will also provide valuable data that will help us better understand how environmental justice organizations and corporations frame issues, develop mobilizing strategies and cope with conflicts. The study uses social movement theory to examine environmental justice movement dynamics. It expands the boundaries of prior environmental justice research by seeking to examine both activist and corporate claims and government actions. The study has the potential to answer questions of significant import as the researcher examines the relationship between environmental justice, corporate and government actors.