Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Organizing Under Austerity: How Residents’ Concerns Became The Flint Water Crisis, Amy Krings, Dana Kornberg, Erin Lane

Amy Krings

What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were …

Seizing Opportunities To Diversify Conservation, Rachelle K. Gould, Indira Phukan, Mary E. Mendoza, Nicole M. Ardoin, Bindu Panikkar

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This article identifies, and offers several ways to address, a serious, persistent issue in conservation: low levels of diversity in thought and action. We first describe the lack of diversity and highlight the continued separation of the environmental conservation and environmental justice movements. We then offer—based on previous research and our collective experience—two suggestions for how to increase inclusivity (a step farther than increasing diversity) in holistic ways. We suggest that embracing narrative, including historical narrative that can be profound and painful, may be essential to addressing this deeply rooted issue. We also …

Science, Advocacy, Policy, Planning: Tools For Advancing Transportation Equity, Garrett S. Mcallister

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The theme of this portfolio is how different tools and approaches can be used for advancing transportation equity. Broadly defined, transportation equity is about fairness in transportation. There are a number of ways this fairness can be assessed. The most common way to assess transportation equity is by looking at the fairness of outcomes, distributed geographically, socially, or even by mode of transportation. Equity can also be defined by the fairness of processes. The first half of the portfolio illustrates some of the problems with the current transportation system and how it is unhealthy (Piece 1) and unjust (Piece 2). …

Organizing Under Austerity: How Residents’ Concerns Became The Flint Water Crisis, Amy Krings, Dana Kornberg, Erin Lane

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were …

Environmental Injustice And Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity In Houston, Texas, Michel G. Loustaunau Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis seeks to contribute to distributive environmental justice (EJ) research by analyzing racial/ethnic and intra-ethnic disparities in potential health risks from exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas. Previous EJ research in this urban area has not examined intra-ethnic heterogeneity in exposure to air pollutants or attempted to compare social disparities in exposure to air pollution caused by vehicular (mobile) and point (stationary) sources. The goal of this study is to determine how the EJ implications of cancer risks from inhalation exposure to HAPs from mobile and stationary sources differ across …

Watered Down: The Challenges Of Managing Water Resources In Montana, Beau E. Baker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Like much of the American West, Montana sits in the cross hairs of climate change. State drought resiliency projects and cooperative watershed management are on the rise in the face of decreased snowpack, early runoff, precipitation variability and lower seasonal stream flows. Population growth, land use practices, recreation and tourism all contribute to pressures on state water supplies.

Montana is faced with the arrival of invasive species that threaten the ecological health of its lakes, rivers and streams. State budget constraints and depressed agency capacity are hurting our ability to fend off these threats. There’s a lack of public education …