Digital Commons Network^™

Community Engagement In Oregon Water Governance: Evaluating A State Water Policy And A Collaborative Q Methodology Research Project, Clare T. Mcclellan

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

This work was primarily conducted by the Oregon Water Stories Project, an interdisciplinary research group at Portland State University, in collaboration with the Willamette Partnership, an environmental non-profit in Portland, and with additional involvement from community partner organizations across the state. The overarching goal of this paper is to explore the challenges and opportunities present at the intersections of water management, stakeholder engagement, community-engaged research, and environmental justice. This study investigates this nexus first through an evaluation of Oregon’s 100 Year Water Vision that points to areas for increased integration of environmental justice principles in water policymaking. In the second …

A Community Of Fear: Emotion And The Hydro-Social Cycle In East Porterville, California, Michael Egge, Idowu Ajibade

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Broader governance challenges driving water insecurity globally are well documented in the literature, however the power-laden relationships and emotions that shape water access at the household and community levels are yet to be fully investigated, especially in the context of water consolidation projects. In this article, we examine the role of emotions in mediating access to water and in the production of resource struggles among marginalized communities, existing outside of conventional regulatory frameworks. We bring together two relational approaches – the hydro-social cycle and emotional political ecology – to examine water insecurity and how it manifests in the historically disadvantaged …

The Communicative Constitution Of Environment: Land, Weather, Climate, Leanna K. Smithberger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My project examines the communicative constitution of environment: how we mediate environment in discursive practice, and arrange chaotic and complex timeplaces into organized relationships of agents and objects which act and are acted upon. Climate scholars across disciplines are calling for a paradigm shift in how we understand, study, inhabit, and relate to Earth’s varied environments. In this dissertation, I demonstrate how communication practices do the work of constituting the environment as we know it, and therefore conclude with the hopeful suggestion that these same practices can be used to do the work of a paradigm shift — that is, …

Exploring The Qualities Of Child-Friendly Outdoor Spaces: A Field Study In Low Income Neighbourhoods - Case Study: Sabra, Beirut, Lebanon, Farah Ahmad Mefleh, Hiba Mohsen, Baher Farahat

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Children’s play areas are from the past an indispensable right for children, in which it allows children to build their physical environment and assess it cognitive thinking. But today, the city, especially in low-income population suffers from a clear shortage of open spaces, where the leftover spaces are left empty used for garbage, old tanks car parts, and many other bad issues. This has negatively affected society, mainly children, where they become vulnerable to many social ills and problems that threaten their lives and behaviour. This paper tries to ameliorate and presents adequate children’s play areas, for the low-income population, …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Community-Engaged Research Surrounding Lead In Drinking Water In The Mississippi Delta, Kristine L. Willett, Stephanie E. Showalter, Catherine M. Janasie, Josephine P. Rhymes, Kennedy Dickson, John J. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Childhood lead poisoning is a problem requiring interdisciplinary attention from toxicology, public health, social sciences, environmental law, and policy. In the U.S., Mississippi was ranked as one of the worst states for lead poisoning with limited childhood screening measures. We conducted community-engaged research by working with leaders in the largely rural Mississippi Delta region from 2016-2019 to collect household water samples and questionnaires and involve their communities in lead poisoning risk awareness and outreach. Drinking water from 213 homes was collected and analyzed for pH and lead concentrations. Highest lead concentrations were from households served by private wells, and detectable …

March 26, 2021 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Pipe Down: Examining The Speech-Suppressing Effect Of Critical Infrastructure Statutes, Sebastien Jongbloets

LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources

No abstract provided.

Osl Newsletter, Office Of Student Life

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

March 24, 2021 Greenmail, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

GreenMail (student newsletter through 2024)

No abstract provided.

Applying Social Science To Bring Resident Stakeholders Into Pollution Governance: A Rural Environmental Justice Public Health Case Study, Sherrie M. Steiner, Jordan M. Marshall, Atefeh Mohammadpour, Aaron W. Thompson

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

The purpose of this engaged public sociology study was to use social science to bring resident stakeholders into the process of governing pollution production in a rural community. The community has cancer clusters. Residents have concerns about direct exposure to pollution production in their neighborhood by a steel recycling plant that has been cited numerous times for environmental violations. The facility has been under voluntary remediation since 2009, but neighborhood residents were marginalized from the governance process. This case study details how social science was used to bring neighborhood residents’ concerns about direct exposure to toxic air pollution into remediation …

Houston, We Have A Gentrification Problem: The Gentrification Effects Of Local Environmental Improvement Plans In The City Of Houston, Madeline Marguerite Byers

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Local environmental improvement plans are increasingly popular among urban planners. As climate change and environmental justice concerns increase, many communities demand a change in local land use policies that put these concerns at the forefront. One such community is the city of Houston, Texas, which issued several environmental improvement plans in recent years after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. As used in this Comment, an environmental improvement plan is a local government planning initiative that aims to implement positive environmental change in urban areas historically burdened by environmental hazards. Such neighborhoods are often undeveloped, low-socioeconomic communities blighted by an accumulation …

Human Rights Award To Honor Champion Of Environmental Rights; Students To Unveil Moral Courage Project About Fight For Clean Water, University Of Dayton

News Releases

Environmental and climate justice will be at the heart of a series of University of Dayton events to honor the legacy of Saint Oscar Romero. The series will culminate with the University bestowing its human rights award named in his honor to Aura Lolita Chávez Ixcaquic, leader of the Council of Ki’che’ Peoples which helps preserve indigenous lands against corporate exploitation in Guatemala.

Front Matter

Denison Journal of Religion

No abstract provided.

Cercla Reauthorization 1994: Insuring The Cleanup Of Hazardous Substance Pollution, Katherine Taylor Eubank

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Sara's Offspring: Some First Principles For Superfund Reform In The 1990s, Robert F. Blomquist

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Cook County Community Survey, Keyla Navarrete, Juanita Vivas Bastidas

Graduate Research Symposium

In our collaborative project with Dr. Dana Garbarski, [sociology department], and Dr. Doherty [political-science department], we created a cross-sectional online survey of a descriptively representative sample of 2,250 adults in Cook County. The survey, which uses zip codes to geocode findings, focuses on seven topics relevant to county residents: gentrification, environmental conditions, politics, political efficacy, policing, and COVID-19. In terms of demographics, it includes questions regarding gender, race, education, homeownership, among others. Juanita and Keyla developed the survey’s environmental conditions and policing topics, respectively, with faculty experts’ guidance. Besides Dr. Garbarski and Dr. Doherty, Juanita worked with Dr. Akchurin, [sociology …

Osl Newsletter, Office Of Student Life

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Columbia Chronicle (03/15/2021), Columbia College Chicago

Columbia Chronicle

Student newspaper from March 15, 2021 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 12 pages. Cover story: "South Side hunger strikers tell their story". Editors-in-Chief: Mari Devereaux & Brooklyn Kiosow.

Home Equity: Rethinking Race And Federal Housing Policy, Rachel D. Godsil, Sarah E. Waldeck

Denver Law Review

No abstract provided.

Coastlines, Coastal Cities, And Climate Change: A Perspective On Urgent Research Needs In The United States, Paul A. Sandifer, Geoffrey I. Scott Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This paper builds upon Friedman et al. (2020) and other reviews and statements but provides an explicit focus on research needed to improve the resilience and survivability of coastal communities as they face existential threats from climate change. It does not attempt a prescriptive analysis of potential research emphases, but instead recommends some key research areas that we believe will help provide a solid foundation for community adaptation. Our perspective is based on our experiences over a combined nearly 95 years of work in research, management, and policy, much of it related to coastal environments and their communities, rather than …

Environmental Justice, Settler Colonialism, And More-Than-Humans In The Occupied West Bank: An Introduction, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

Our special issue provides a first-of-its kind attempt to examine environmental injustices in the occupied West Bank through interdisciplinary perspectives, pointing to the broader settler colonial and neoliberal contexts within which they occur and to their more-than-human implications. Specifically, we seek to understand what environmental justice—a movement originating from, and rooted in, the United States—means in the context of Palestine/Israel. Moving beyond the settler-native dialectic, we draw attention to the more-than-human flows that occur in the region—which include water, air, waste, cement, trees, donkeys, watermelons, and insects—to consider the dynamic, and often gradational, meanings of frontier, enclosure, and Indigeneity in …

Osl Newsletter, Office Of Student Life

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Adapting To Faculty & Student Needs For Data And Support For Social Justice And Other Projects, Sarah A. Norris, Corinne Bishop, Sandy Avila, Buenaventura (Ven) Basco, Lee Dotson

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Presentation given at RDAP Summit 2021.

During 2020, the need for access and equity has been more important than ever, particularly with data. At the University of Central Florida (UCF), a group of librarians representing various library units, including Research & Information Services, Scholarly Communication, and Technology Solutions & Digital Initiatives has been engaged in data services and outreach forming a working group in 2019. This group undertook several projects in 2020 related to open access data and social justice resources. One such project included creating an interdisciplinary research guide to identify data resources around topics, such as diversity and …

"Will God Forgive Us?": Christianity And The Climate Crisis In Auteur Cinema, Margaret Alice Parson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is an unavoidable and real catastrophic threat to the future of Planet Earth. This dissertation is interested in how contemporary auteur cinema draws on Christian forms to give expression to the ineffability of environmental collapse. In this rhetorical generic criticism, I discuss three recent auteur films: First Reformed (2017, directed by Paul Schrader), Interstellar (2014, directed by Christopher Nolan), and mother! (2017, directed by Darren Aronofsky). In order to best rhetorically analyze these films, I perform a generic criticism which utilizes aspects of psychoanalysis and affect theory as per the work of Gunn. Each film is …

Fighting Climate Change With The Charter: An Inquiry Into The Effects Of Litigating The Right To A Healthy Environment, Kevin Patrick Berk

LLM Theses

This thesis examines whether the litigation of the legal right to a healthy environment can adequately advance the values of its supporters. This question is answered through examining scholarly arguments in favour of the right, promotional material from Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) litigating the right, court documents, as well as the results of a select number of interviews with senior members of Canadian ENGOs. It is ultimately argued that the intervention of lawyers and the interpretation of judges will narrow the intended scope of the right. Additionally, it is argued that the act of choosing to litigate implicitly affirms the …

Access To Environmental Justice: Ngo Environmental Advocacy On Mining-Related Environmental Issues In Mongolia, Ulziilkham Enkhbaatar

LLM Theses

In this thesis, I apply the theory of environmental justice to determine how NGOs use substantive and procedural environmental rights to advocate for mining-affected nomadic communities in Mongolia. Environmental NGOs often possess legal and scientific expertise pertinent to resolving and mitigating environmental risks and demanding justice for environmental damages on behalf of the mining-affected local communities. Based on the environmental justice theories, I have constructed a theoretical framework to examine how NGOs access and implement environmental justice tools, both domestically and internationally. Using a multi-methods research approach, including documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with NGO experts and lawyers, I was …

Regional Economic Community Courts And The Advancement Of Environmental Protection And Socio-Economic Justice In Africa: Three Case Studies, Rahina Bukar Zarma

PhD Dissertations

Focusing on three regional economic communities (REC) courts in Africa that nevertheless possess a human rights jurisdiction i.e. the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (the ECOWAS Court), the East African Court of Justice (the EACJ), and the Southern African Development Community Tribunal (the SADC Tribunal) - this dissertation investigates the relationships among the RECs, states, activists and the courts themselves, as producing and framing the specific conditions under which environmental protection and socio-economic justice in the region in Africa are either advanced or stifled. The dissertation discusses the ways in which the mandates and …

Teaching Race And Racial Justice: Developing Students’ Cognitive And Affective Understanding, Amie Thurber, Joe Bandy, M. Brielle Harbin

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effectively addressing both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning is one of the greatest obstacles to teaching race and racial justice in higher education. In this article, we first explore the need to integrate attention to cognitive and affective development, along with evidence-based strategies for doing so. We then provide a case study of an undergraduate sociology course on environmental justice in which the instructor intentionally adopted holistic pedagogical principles of teaching race. Analyzing student responses from a pre- and post- course survey, course assignments, and instructor observations of student participation, we find that both white students and students of …

Translating Land Justice Through Comparison: A Us-French Dialogue And Research Agenda., Megan Horst, Nathan Mcclintock, Adrien Baysse-Lainé, Ségolène Darly, Flaminia Paddeu, Coline Perrin, Kristin Reynolds, Christophe-Toussaint Soulard

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this discussion piece, eight scholars in geography, urban planning, and agri-food studies from the United States (US) and France engage in a bi-national comparison to deepen our collective understanding of food and land justice. We specifically contextualize land justice as a critical component of food justice in both the US and France in three key areas: access to land for cultivation, urban agriculture, and non-agricultural forms of food provisioning. The US and France are interesting cases to compare, considering the differences and similarities in their colonial and agricultural histories, persistent and systemic race and class-based inequities in land access, …

Memorial Parking Trees: Resilient Modular Design With Nature-Based Solutions In Vulnerable Urban Areas, Haroon Stephen, Fortino Acosta

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Nature-based solutions (NbS) include all the landscape’s ecological components that have a function in the natural or urban ecosystem. Memorial Parking Trees (MPTs) are a new variant of a nature-based solution composed of a bioswale and a street tree allocated in the road, occupying a space that is sub-utilised by parked cars. This infill green practice can maximise the use of street trees in secondary streets and have multiple benefits in our communities. Using GIS mapping and methodology can support implementation in vulnerable neighbourhoods. In this research, we based vulnerability assessments for London, Rio de Janeiro, and Los Angeles on …