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130-708: The Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) is an environmental justice organization located on the west coast of California, specifically in Richmond, Oakland, and Wilmington California. APEN is an active member of the California Environmental Justice Alliance and has been involved with campaigns that advocate for just urban environments. APEN has expanded the framework of an environmental organization by incorporating biological, industrial, civil and social justice aspects into an effort that works to develop eco-friendly landscapes for

260-415: A community. Hence, making emergence the first step to a social movement. This discontent will act as the chain that links common people together, as they share the same experiences and feelings of oppression. "Within this stage, social movements are very preliminary and there is little to no organization. Instead this stage can be thought of as widespread discontent (Macionis, 2001; Hopper, 1950). " Emergence

390-598: A comprehensive global movement, introducing numerous concepts to political ecology, including ecological debt, environmental racism, climate justice, food sovereignty, corporate accountability, ecocide, sacrifice zones, and environmentalism of the poor. It aims to augment human rights law, which traditionally overlooked the relationship between the environment and human rights. Despite attempts to integrate environmental protection into human rights law, challenges persist, particularly concerning climate justice. Scholars such as Kyle Powys Whyte and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have extended

520-425: A concept David Pellow calls “Indispensability”. Joen Márquez introduces the concept of “racial expendability” in his book Black and Brown Solidarity , in which he argues that “black and brown bodies are, in the eyes of the state and its constituent legal system, generally viewed as criminal, deficient, threatening, and deserving of violent discipline and even obliteration.” Critical EJ builds on this work by countering

650-539: A conversation of equity. Bullard writes that equity is distilled into three board categories: procedural, geographic, and social. From his publication “Confronting Environmental Racism in the Twenty-First Century,” he draws our the difference between the three within the context of environmental injustices: Procedural equity refers to the “fairness” question: the extent that rules, regulations, evaluation criteria and enforcement are applied uniformly across

780-474: A crossroads of all their identities, with privilege and marginalization in the intersection between their class, race, gender, sexuality, queerness, cis- or transness, ethnicity, ability, and other facts of identity. As David Nibert and Michael Fox put it in the context of injustice, “The oppression of various devalued groups in human societies is not independent and unrelated; rather, the arrangements that lead to various forms of oppression are integrated in such

910-461: A flourishing community is a further criteria for a just society. However, initiatives have been taken to expand the notion of environmental justice beyond the three pillars of distribution, participation, and recognition to also include the dimensions of self-governing authority, relational ontologies, and epistemic justice. Robert D. Bullard writes that environmental justice, as a social movement and ideological stewardship, may instead be seen as

1040-962: A generational inter-ethnic community lead organization as well as "Power in Asians Organizing" which organizes low-income residence in Oakland. APEN has also established the Asian Youth Advocates (AYA), a youth program that fosters leadership from AAPI communities in California. Expanding beyond the AYA, APEN also created an Intergenerational Leadership program to support and encourage more young women to get involved with these issues. APEN has been engaged in legal oppositions to oil and industrial corporations and have been advocating for Just Cause eviction protections and advocating for environmental initiatives since 1993. APEN has been

1170-554: A genocidal kind before federal recognition. Origins of the environmental justice movement can be traced to the Indigenous Environmental Movement, which has involved Indigenous populations fighting against displacement and assimilation for sovereignty and land rights for hundreds of years. The terms 'environmental justice’ and ‘ environmental’ racism ’ did not enter the common vernacular until residents of Warren County, North Carolina protested against

1300-406: A landfill designed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls in the 1982 PCB protests . Thirty-thousand gallons of PCB fluid lined 270 miles of roadway in fourteen North Carolina Counties, and the state announced that a landfill would be built rather than undergoing permanent detoxification. Warren County was chosen, the poorest county in the state with a per capita income of around $ 5,000 in 1980 , and

1430-406: A large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology , environmental law , and theories on justice and sustainability . The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to

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1560-415: A large number of people realize that there are others sharing the same value and desire for a particular social change. This third stage, bureaucratization, is when movements must become more organized, centered around a more systematic model. The set up and system for going about the construct must be more formal, with people taking on specific roles and responsibilities. "In this phase their political power

1690-490: A life cycle: they are created, they grow, they achieve successes or failures and eventually, they dissolve and cease to exist. They are more likely to evolve in the time and place which is friendly to the social movements: hence their evident symbiosis with the 19th century proliferation of ideas like individual rights, freedom of speech and civil disobedience. Social movements occur in liberal and authoritarian societies but in different forms. These new movements are activated by

1820-631: A long and troubling history, with many examples dating back to the early 20th century. For instance, the practice of "redlining" in the US, which involved denying loans and insurance to communities of colour, often led to these communities being located in areas with high levels of pollution and environmental hazards. Today, environmental racism continues to be a significant environmental justice issue, with many low-income communities and communities of colour facing disproportionate exposure to pollution and other environmental risks. This can have serious consequences for

1950-450: A method of social change from the bottom within nations . On the other hand, some social movements do not aim to make society more egalitarian, but to maintain or amplify existing power relationships. For example, scholars have described fascism as a social movement. Political science and sociology have developed a variety of theories and empirical research on social movements. For example, some research in political science highlights

2080-415: A movement may take before proceeding into decline. Success of a movement would result in permanent changes within the society and/or government that would result in a loss of need for protest. Failure is often the result of the incapability to keep a common focus, and work towards the goal in mind. "Failure of social movements due to organizational or strategic failings is common for many organizations". Such

2210-887: A multilingual warning system which implemented health advisory notifications from refinery accidents to Contra Costa County. APEN works in Richmond which has over 350 chemical companies, and hazardous waste sites including the 2 contaminated federal superfund locations and they also address asthma and air pollution levels. APEN and its sister organizations have stopped some of Chevron's expansion initiatives and have worked to reallocate Chevron payouts through community benefits agreements and settlements from accidents. APEN works with cities across California to invest in AAPI infrastructure to build community resiliency to climate change. A major part of this advocation surrounds tenant control and protection measures in both health and economic aspects. To aid in mitigating environmental impacts on communities, APEN

2340-471: A part of campaigns to give more control to tenants by working to pass the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act . In 2002, APEN established an effort called "Power in Asians Organizing" which mobilized to win affordable housing units and stop mass evictions in Oakland. Additionally, APEN’s goal of ensuring environmental justice extended into a No Coal In Richmond coalition, where in 2020, members of

2470-440: A particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change , or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals , organizations , or both. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent

2600-481: A plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity" Sociologist Charles Tilly defines social movements as a series of contentious performances, displays and campaigns by which ordinary people make collective claims on others. For Tilly, social movements are a major vehicle for ordinary people's participation in public politics. He argues that there are three major elements to

2730-475: A rational and strategic effort by ordinary people to change society or politics. The form of the resources shapes the activities of the movement (e.g., access to a TV station will result in the extensive use TV media). Movements develop in contingent opportunity structures that influence their efforts to mobilize; and each movement's response to the opportunity structures depends on the movement's organization and resources Critics of this theory argue that there

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2860-566: A result; when sea life suffers from exposure to toxins such as mercury, we find that human beings also endure the effects of mercury when they consume those animals; and the intersecting character of multiple forms of inequality is revealed when nuclear radiation or climate change affects all species and humans across all social class levels, racial/ethnic groups, genders, abilities, and ages. David Pellow applies his concept of Critical EJ towards modern-day movements in his publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies , in which he applied

2990-420: A route would result in the gradual breaking up of an organization, and out of the stages of movement. Co-optation results when people or groups are integrated and shift away from the social movement's initial concerns and values. Repression is another example, when the movement is slowly wiped away from the public platform through means of an outside force, usually being the government. The last route into declining

3120-647: A series of “genuine solutions” that echoed the Bali Principles. Initially, the environmental justice movement focused on addressing toxic hazards and injustices faced by marginalized racial groups within affluent nations. However, during the 1991 Leadership Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues. Over time, the movement expanded further to include considerations of gender, international injustices, and intra-group disparities among disadvantaged populations. Environmental justice has evolved into

3250-499: A shared normative orientation; (3.) the sharing of a concern for change of the status quo and (4.) the occurrence of moments of practical action that are at least subjectively connected together across time addressing this concern for change. Thus we define a social movement as a form of political association between persons who have at least a minimal sense of themselves as connected to others in common purpose and who come together across an extended period of time to effect social change in

3380-647: A significant contribution from movements in the United States, and recognized that economic inequality, ethnicity, and geography played roles in determining who bore the brunt of environmental pollution”. At the 2007 United Nations Climate Conference , or COP13, in Bali, representatives from the Global South and low-income communities from the North created a coalition titled “ Climate Justice Now! ”. CJN! Issued

3510-479: A social movement addresses environmental issues that may be defined as slow violence and otherwise may not be addressed by legislative bodies. Slow violence exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation. Drawing on concepts of anarchism , posthumanism , critical theory , and intersectional feminism , author David Naguib Pellow created

3640-405: A social movement as "a set of opinions and beliefs in a population which represents preferences for changing some elements of the social structure and/or reward distribution of a society." According to Paul van Seeters and Paul James , defining a social movement entails a few minimal conditions of 'coming together': (1.) the formation of some kind of collective identity; (2.) the development of

3770-413: A social movement to improve (or defend) their conditions. There are two significant problems with this theory. First, since most people feel deprived at one level or another almost all the time, the theory has a hard time explaining why the groups that form social movements do when other people are also deprived. Second, the reasoning behind this theory is circular – often the only evidence for deprivation

3900-441: A social movement to organize it must have strong leadership and sufficient resources. Political opportunity refers to the receptivity or vulnerability of the existing political system to challenge. This vulnerability can be the result of any of the following (or a combination thereof): One of the advantages of the political process theory is that it addresses the issue of timing or emergence of social movements. Some groups may have

4030-411: A social movement: Sidney Tarrow defines a social movement as "collective challenges [to elites, authorities, other groups or cultural codes] by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and authorities." He specifically distinguishes social movements from political parties and advocacy groups . The sociologists John McCarthy and Mayer Zald define as

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4160-612: A way that the exploitation of one group frequently augments and compounds the mistreatment of others.” Thus, Critical EJ views racism, heteropatriarchy, classism ,nativism, ableism, ageism, speciesism (the belief that one species is superior to another), and other forms of inequality as intersecting axes of domination and control. The organization Intersectional Environmentalism, founded by Leah Thomas in 2020, builds from this theory to argue that intersectional environmentalism means that “social [and] environmental justice are intertwined and environmental advocacy that disregards this connection

4290-404: A wish for change in social customs, ethics and values which oppress certain communities. The birth of a social movement needs what sociologist Neil Smelser calls an initiating event : a particular, individual event that will begin a chain reaction of events in the given society leading to the creation of a social movement. The root of this event must be the result of some common discontent among

4420-449: Is Critical Environmental Justice that while “a molecule of carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide can occur in an instant, … it remains in the atmosphere for more than a century, so the decisions we make at one point in time can have dramatic ramifications for generations to come”. Pollution does not stay where it starts, and so consideration must be taken as to the scale of an issue rather than solely its effects. The third pillar of Critical EJ

4550-419: Is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste , resource extraction , and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by

4680-532: Is also discussed as environmental racism or environmental inequality . Environmental justice is typically defined as distributive justice , which is the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits . Some definitions address procedural justice , which is the fair and meaningful participation in decision-making . Other scholars emphasise recognition justice , which is the recognition of oppression and difference in environmental justice communities . People's capacity to convert social goods into

4810-474: Is also happening unevenly, with people of color, the poor, indigenous peoples, peoples of the global South, and women suffering the most.”   Pellow further contextualizes scale through temporal dimensions. For instance, how does the emergence and use of coal-fired power plants and petroleum-based economics develop and change over historical periods, and in turn unveiling the social causes of our ecological crises. Pellow observes in his 2017 publication What

4940-467: Is bound to fail." Activists too often make the mistake of trying to convince people to address their issues. A mobilization strategy aimed at large-scale change often begins with action a small issue that concerns many people. Popovic also argues that a social movement has little chance of growing if it relies on boring speeches and the usual placard waving marches. He argues for creating movements that people actually want to join. OTPOR! succeeded because it

5070-432: Is going mainstream, which is generally perceived as an overall success. This is when goals of the movement are taken into society as a part of daily life, making it a 'social norm.' For example, birth control is still a greatly debated topic on a government level, but it has been accepted into social life as a common thing that exists. It is important to recognize that though movements may disintegrate and cease to be active,

5200-508: Is greater than in the previous stages in that they may have more regular access to political elites." In this stage, one organization may take over another one in order to obtain a greater status and formal alliance. This 'taking over' may be a positive or negative move for organizations. Ella Baker, an activist who played a role in the NAACP, had proposed to the students of the student movement to start their own organization. This becomes known as

5330-473: Is harmful and incomplete.” The second pillar of Critical EJ is a focus on the role of scale in the production and possible resolution of environmental injustices. Critical EJ embraces multi-scalar methodological and theoretical approaches order to better comprehend the complex spatial and temporal causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles. Julie Sze writes, “thinking globally and acting locally also demands that people more fully comprehend

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5460-650: Is installing sustainable energy sources within low-income communities to ensure that individuals do not have to relocate due to an inability to afford basic needs. Additionally, this self-sustaining form of energy will enable communities to stay together and continue to advocate for change in minority and low-income communities. Through the Inflation Reduction Act , APEN is 1 of the 11 EPA-appointed grant-makers that can distribute federal funds to locally-led environmental projects that address climate action Environmental justice Environmental justice

5590-405: Is prior to any sort of organized resistance to the condition of society. Jonathan Christiansen's essay on the four stages of social movement dissects further into the historical sociology of how each stage affects the whole movement. The Civil Rights Movement's early stages are an example of the public display of protest that is utilized to push a movement into the next stages. "It was not until after

5720-473: Is that for most, neither insiders to a movement nor outsiders apply consistent labels or even descriptive phrases. Unless there is a single leader who does, or a formal system of membership agreements, activists will typically use diverse labels and descriptive phrases that require scholars to discern when they are referring to the same or similar ideas, declare similar goals, adopt similar programs of action, and use similar methods. There can be great differences in

5850-638: Is the social movement. If deprivation is claimed to be the cause but the only evidence for such is the movement, the reasoning is circular. Mass society theory argues that social movements are made up of individuals in large societies who feel insignificant or socially detached. Social movements, according to this theory, provide a sense of empowerment and belonging that the movement members would otherwise not have. Very little support has been found for this theory. Aho (1990), in his study of Idaho Christian Patriotism, did not find that members of that movement were more likely to have been socially detached. In fact,

5980-597: Is the view that social inequalities - from racism to speciesism - are deeply embedded in society and reinforced by state power, and therefore the current social order stands as a fundamental obstacle to social and environmental justice. Pellow argues in his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice that social change movements may be better off thinking and acting beyond the state and capital as targets of reform and/or as reliable partners. Furthermore, that scholars and activists are not asking how they might build environmentally resilient communities that exist beyond

6110-685: Is too much of an emphasis on resources, especially financial resources. Some movements are effective without an influx of money and are more dependent upon the movement members for time and labor (e.g., the civil rights movement in the U.S.). Political process theory is similar to resource mobilization in many regards, but tends to emphasize a different component of social structure that is important for social movement development: political opportunities . Political process theory argues that there are three vital components for movement formation: insurgent consciousness, organizational strength, and political opportunities. Insurgent consciousness refers back to

6240-655: The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil. The 17 Principles have a likeness in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. In the summer of 2002, a coalition of non-governmental organizations met in Bali to prepare final negotiations for the 2002 Earth Summit . Organizations included CorpWatch, World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth International, the Third World Network, and

6370-646: The American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade ). The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by

6500-568: The House of Commons to deliver a petition demanding the repeal of the Act, which the government refused to do. Soon, large riots broke out across London and embassies and Catholic owned businesses were attacked by angry mobs. Other political movements that emerged in the late 18th century included the British abolitionist movement against slavery (becoming one between the sugar boycott of 1791 and

6630-535: The Napoleonic Wars entered a period of social upheaval characterised by the growing maturity of the use of social movements and special-interest associations. Chartism was the first mass movement of the growing working-class in the world. It campaigned for political reform between 1838 and 1848 with the People's Charter of 1838 as its manifesto – this called for universal suffrage and the implementation of

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6760-467: The Second World War entered a period of radical reform and change. In the post-war period, feminism , gay rights movement , peace movement , civil rights movement , anti-nuclear movement and environmental movement emerged, often dubbed the new social movements They led, among other things, to the formation of green parties and organisations influenced by the new left . Some find in

6890-737: The United Nations . The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment . The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. Environmental justice scholars have produced

7020-784: The industrialization and urbanization of 19th-century societies. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of expression, education and relative economic independence prevalent in the modern Western culture are responsible for the unprecedented number and scope of various contemporary social movements. Many of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in Kenya, to oppose Western colonialism. Social movements have been and continue to be closely connected with democratic political systems . Occasionally, social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but more often they have flourished after democratization. Over

7150-629: The secret ballot , amongst other things. The term "social movements" was introduced in 1848 by the German Sociologist Lorenz von Stein in his book Socialist and Communist Movements since the Third French Revolution (1848) in which he introduced the term "social movement" into scholarly discussions – actually depicting in this way political movements fighting for the social rights understood as welfare rights . The labor movement and socialist movement of

7280-407: The worker class . Many other social movements were created at universities , where the process of mass education brought many people together. With the development of communication technologies, creation and activities of social movements became easier – from printed pamphlets circulating in the 18th century coffeehouses to newspapers and Internet , all those tools became important factors in

7410-718: The Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme court decision (1954), which outlawed segregation in Public schools, and following the arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to comply with segregation laws on city buses by giving up her bus seat to a white man, that the American Civil Rights Movement would proceed to the next stage – coalescence." The impact of a black woman, Rosa Parks , riding in

7540-462: The EPA. They rely on distributive justice , centered around the nature of private property. Native Americans do not fall under the same statutory frameworks as they are citizens of Indigenous nations, not ethnic minorities. As individuals, they are subject to American laws. As nations, they are subject to a separate legal regime, constructed on the basis of pre-existing sovereignty acknowledged by treaty and

7670-494: The Environmental Equity Work Group (EEWG) in 1990 in response to additional findings by social scientists that “racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population’ and that the EPA's inspections failed to adequately protect low-income communities of color”. In 1992, the EPA published Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities -

7800-478: The First National People of Color Environmental Justice Leadership Summit in 1991. Most of the attendees were activists representing various ethnic groups dealing with struggles from American chemical waste. Delegates such as Peggy Saika, Pam Tau Lee, and Miya Yoshitani returned from the 1991 summit having noticed little representation from AAPI voices. Pam Tau Lee and Peggy Saika were the drivers in

7930-879: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, held in Washington, DC. The four-day summit was sponsored by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice. With around 1,100 persons in attendance, representation included all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. The summit broadened the environmental justice movement beyond its anti-toxins focus to include issues of public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, housing, resource allocation, and community empowerment. The summit adopted 17 Principles of Environmental Justice , which were later disseminated at

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8060-577: The Indigenous Environmental Network. They sought to articulate the concept of climate justice. During their time together, the organizations codified the Bali Principles of Climate Justice , a 27-point program identifying and organizing the climate justice movement. Meena Raman, Head of Programs at the Third World Network, explained that in their writing they “drew heavily on the concept of environmental justice, with

8190-531: The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. The working group sought to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations. David Pellow writes that the executive order “remains the cornerstone of environmental justice regulation in the US, with the EPA as its ventral arbiter”. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, grassroots movements and environmental organizations advocated for regulations that increased

8320-562: The PCB dumping after reading newspapers meant for their garden mulch, and days later he and Rev. Leon White led a “humane blockade” to prevent trucks from arriving at the landfill. After being arrested for the demonstration, Furriccio continued his defiance against the county by refusing to post bail and going on a nineteen-day hunger strike. Rev. Benjamin Chavis was serving for the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice when he

8450-662: The President of the Protestant Association in 1779. The Association had the support of leading Calvinist religious figures, including Rowland Hill , Erasmus Middleton , and John Rippon . Gordon was an articulate propagandist and he inflamed the mob with fears of Papism and a return to absolute monarchical rule . The situation deteriorated rapidly, and in 1780, after a meeting of the Protestant Association, its members subsequently marched on

8580-606: The Richmond community from all different backgrounds and careers came together to fight back against these health and safety hazards for community members. This initiative was historic as it ended up prohibiting the storage and exportation of coal and petroleum in Richmond, California. In 2021, APEN lead the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force in Richmond which re-allocated $ 10 million towards housing and food access to Richmond and Oakland residents. APEN has also expanded linguistic equity by integrating

8710-547: The SNCC, the student nonviolent coordinating committee (1960s). The students could have joined forces with the SCLC, an already existing organization, but that would have been a poor bureaucratizing decision, as they would succumb to old ideologies. New and progressive ideas that challenge prior authority are crucial to social change. The declining of a social movement does not necessarily mean failure. There are multiple routes in which

8840-681: The U.S. Constitution. Environmental justice to Indigenous persons is not understood by legal entities but rather their distinct cultural and religious doctrines. Environmental Justice for Indigenous peoples follows a model that frames issues in terms of their colonial condition and can affirm decolonization as a potential framework within environmental justice. While Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences vary from place to place, David Pellow writes that there are “common realities they all share in their experience of colonization that make it possible to generalize an Indigenous methodology while recognizing specific, localized conditions”. Even abstract ideas like

8970-528: The US escalated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Many impacted countries do not have adequate disposal systems for this waste, and impacted communities are not informed about the hazards they are being exposed to. The Khian Sea waste disposal incident was a notable example of environmental justice issues arising from international movement of toxic waste. Contractors disposing of ash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania illegally dumped

9100-403: The US, race is the most important determinant of environmental injustice. In other countries, poverty or caste (India) are important indicators. Tribal affiliation is also important in some countries. Environmental justice scholars Laura Pulido and David Pellow argue that recognizing environmental racism, as an element stemming from the entrenched legacies of racial capitalism , is crucial to

9230-588: The aforementioned pillars towards the Black Lives Matter movement and the problem of state violence. Pellow argues that within conventional studies, “the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle against environmental racism … is a connection that many scholars might not make at first glance because police brutality and environmental politics would appear to be only tangentially related.” Following his four pillars of Critical EJ, his ties

9360-403: The aggregation of resources by social movement entrepreneurs and movement organizations, who use these resources to turn collective dissent in to political pressure. Members are recruited through networks; commitment is maintained by building a collective identity, and through interpersonal relationships. Resource Mobilization Theory views social movement activity as "politics by other means":

9490-478: The anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective , which was co-created by Scott Crow to provide services for survivors of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Crow gave insight as to what change outside of state power looks like, telling Pellow: We did service work, but it was a revolutionary analysis and practice. We created a horizontal organization that defied the state and did our work in spite of

9620-573: The authorities to concede to the movement's demands. Wilkes was returned to Parliament, general warrants were declared unconstitutional, and press freedom was extended to the coverage of Parliamentary debates . A much larger movement of anti-Catholic protest was triggered by the Papists Act 1778 , which eliminated a number of the penalties and disabilities endured by Roman Catholics in England , and formed around Lord George Gordon , who became

9750-728: The board and in a non-discriminatory way. Unequal protection might result from nonscientific and undemocratic decisions, exclusionary practices, public hearings held in remote locations and at inconvenient times, and use of English-only material as the language in which to communicate and conduct hearings for non-English-speaking publics. Geographic equity refers to the location and spatial configuration of communities and their proximity to environmental hazards, noxious facilities and locally unwanted land uses (Lulus) such as landfills, incinerators, sewage treatment plants, lead smelters, refineries and other noxious facilities. For example, unequal protection may result from land-use decisions that determine

9880-412: The communist regimes of Eastern Europe , developed after trade union activist Anna Walentynowicz was fired from work. The South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo grew out of a road blockade in response to the sudden selling off of a small piece of land promised for housing to a developer. Such an event is also described as a volcanic model – a social movement is often created after

10010-438: The communities that they represent. They are involved with environmental issues surrounding the opposition of toxic waste infrastructure and they also lead campaigns for Asian Pacific Americans (AAPI) communities lacking adequate housing and climate solutions in sacrifice zones which consists of locations that sit on or are near hazardous waste sites. The solidification of this group came from AAPI representatives in 1993, after

10140-537: The concept of Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) in his work What is Critical Environmental Justice . Critical EJ is a perspective intended to address a number of limitations and tensions within EJ Studies. Critical EJ calls for scholarship that builds on research in environmental justice studies by questioning assumptions and gaps in earlier work in the field, embracing greater interdisciplinary, and moving towards methodologies and epistemologies including and beyond

10270-514: The concept to the Black Lives Matter movement and associated movements, demonstrating: (1) how attention to multiple categories of difference and inequality (including more-than-human species and the built environment); (2) an emphasis on the role of scale as a way of understanding the violence of racism and the promise of resistance movements; (3) a focus on linking the entrenched character of social inequalities with transformative, anti-authoritarian and anarchist perspectives; (4) and an application of

10400-506: The concepts of racial and socioecological indispensability can produce an enriched account of that movement's core concerns, its limitations, and its possibilities. The first pillar of Critical EJ Studies involves the recognition that social inequality and oppression in all forms intersect, and that actors in the more-than-human world are subjects of oppression and frequently agents of social change. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory states that individuals exist in

10530-442: The costs of hazardous waste disposal in the US and other industrialized nations. However, this led to a surge in exports of hazardous waste to the Global South during the 1980s and 1990s. This global environmental injustice, including the disposal of toxic waste, land appropriation, and resource extraction, sparked the formation of the global environmental justice movement. Environmental justice as an international subject commenced at

10660-529: The degree to which scholars should place emphasis on one or more social categories of difference (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, species, etc.) versus a focus on multiple forms of inequality; (2) the extent to which scholars studying EJ issues should focus on single-scale versus multi-scalar analyses of the causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles; (3) the degree to which various forms of social inequality and power—including state power—are viewed as entrenched and embedded in society; and (4)

10790-440: The development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socio-economic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies Environmental justice

10920-666: The discourse on environmental justice concerning Indigenous peoples and settler-colonialism. Gilio-Whitaker critiques distributive justice, which assumes a capitalistic commodification of land inconsistent with Indigenous worldviews. Whyte explores environmental justice within the context of colonialism's catastrophic environmental impacts on Indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and identities. The environmental justice movement seeks to address environmental discrimination and environmental racism associated with hazardous waste disposal, resource extraction, land appropriation, and other activities. This environmental discrimination results in

11050-555: The eighties you couldn't just say there was discrimination. You had to prove it.” Fighting for change, not recognition, is an additional factor of environmental justice as a social movement.   In response to the Warren County Protests, two cross-sectional studies were conducted to determine the demographics of those exposed to uncontrolled toxic waste sites and commercial hazardous waste facilities. The United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice studied

11180-410: The end of the 1990s the emergence of a new global social movement, the anti-globalization movement . Some social movement scholars posit that with the rapid pace of globalization, the potential for the emergence of new type of social movement is latent—they make the analogy to national movements of the past to describe what has been termed a global citizens movement . Several key processes lie behind

11310-574: The environmental aftermath of war can be characterized as slow violence . The term “slow violence” was coined by author Rob Nixon in his 2011 book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor . Slow violence is defined as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all”. Environmental justice as

11440-669: The first time the agency embarked on a systematic examination of environmental risks to communities of color. This acted as their direction of addressing environmental justice. In 1993 the EPA founded the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). In 1994 the office's name was changed to the Office of Environmental Justice as a result of public criticism on the difference between equity and justice. That same year, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 , which created

11570-567: The growing movement for popular sovereignty among the middle classes – people began chanting "Wilkes and Liberty" in the streets. After a later period of exile brought about by further charges of libel and obscenity , Wilkes stood for the Parliamentary seat at Middlesex , where most of his support was located. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, a mass movement of support emerged, with large demonstrations in

11700-608: The growth of the social movements. Finally, the spread of democracy and political rights like the freedom of speech made the creation and functioning of social movements much easier. Nascent social movements often fail to achieve their objectives because they fail to mobilize sufficient numbers of people. Srdja Popovic, author of Blueprint for Revolution, and spokesperson for OTPOR! , says that movements succeed when they address issues that people actually care about. "It's unrealistic to expect people to care about more than what they already care about, and any attempt to make them do so

11830-461: The health and well-being of these communities, leading to higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses. Addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that tackles the underlying social, economic, and political factors that contribute to its persistence. More particularly, environmental justice scholars from Latin America and elsewhere advocate to understand this issue through

11960-501: The history of social movements. Urbanization led to larger settlements, where people of similar goals could find each other, gather and organize. This facilitated social interaction between scores of people, and it was in urban areas that those early social movements first appeared. Similarly, the process of industrialization which gathered large masses of workers in the same region explains why many of those early social movements addressed matters such as economic wellbeing, important to

12090-709: The human/nonhuman divide and their relationships to one another. Pellow expands writing in Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “racial indispensability is intended to challenge the logic of racial expendability and is the idea that institutions, policies, and practices that support and perpetrate anti-Black racism suffer from the flawed assumption that the future of African Americans  is  somehow  de-linked  from  the  future  of  White  communities.” Traces of environmental injustices span millennia of unrecorded history. Indigenous peoples experienced environmental devastation of

12220-438: The ideas of deprivation and grievances. The idea is that certain members of society feel like they are being mistreated or that somehow the system is unjust. The insurgent consciousness is the collective sense of injustice that movement members (or potential movement members) feel and serves as the motivation for movement organization. Organizational strength falls inline with resource-mobilization theory, arguing that in order for

12350-438: The ideology of white supremacy and human dominionism, and articulating the perspective that excluded, marginalized, and other populations, beings, and things - both human and nonhuman - must be viewed not as expensable but rather an indispensable to our collective futures. Pellow uses racial indispensability when referring to people of color and socioecological indispensability when referring to broader communities within and across

12480-605: The impact that they have in the social realm is success in its own way. It sparks the notion in new generations that the possibility to organize and make change is there. Sociologists have developed several theories related to social movements [Kendall, 2005]. Some of the better-known approaches are outlined below. Chronologically they include: Deprivation theory argues that social movements have their foundations among people who feel deprived of some good(s) or resource(s). According to this approach, individuals who are lacking some good, service, or comfort are more likely to organize

12610-457: The importance of including their perspectives and needs in environmental decision-making. Martinez-Alier's work also introduces the concept of "ecological distribution conflicts," which are conflicts over access to and control of natural resources and the environmental impacts that result from their use, and which are often rooted in social and economic inequalities. The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and

12740-428: The insurgent consciousness and resources to mobilize, but because political opportunities are closed, they will not have any success. The theory, then, argues that all three of these components are important. Critics of the political process theory and resource-mobilization theory point out that neither theory discusses movement culture to any great degree. This has presented culture theorists an opportunity to expound on

12870-490: The key to joining the movement was having a friend or associate who was a member of the movement. Social Strain Theory, is the "proposal that pressure derived from social factors, such as lack of income or lack of quality education, drives individuals to commit crime." This theory is also subject to circular reasoning as it incorporates, at least in part, deprivation theory and relies upon it, and social/structural strain for

13000-507: The largely unexamined question of the expendability of human and non-human populations facing socioecological threats from states, industries, and other political economic forces. In his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice , David Pellow writes as an example of the four pillars working in-tandem: Where we find rivers dammed for hydropower plants we also tend to find indigenous peoples and fisherfolk, as well as other working people, whose livelihoods and health are harmed as

13130-680: The late 19th century are seen as the prototypical social movements, leading to the formation of communist and social democratic parties and organisations. These tendencies were seen in poorer countries as pressure for reform continued, for example in Russia with the Russian Revolution of 1905 and of 1917 , resulting in the collapse of the Czarist regime around the end of the First World War . In 1945, Britain after victory in

13260-503: The lens of decolonisation. The latter underlies the fact that environmental racism emanates from the colonial projects of the West and its current reproduction of colonial dynamics. As environmental justice groups have grown more successful in developed countries such as the United States, the burdens of global production have been shifted to the Global South where less-strict regulations make waste disposal cheaper. Export of toxic waste from

13390-420: The location of residential amenities and disamenities. The poor and communities of colour often suffer a “triple” vulnerability of noxious facility siting, as do the unincorporated—sparsely populated communities that are not legally chartered as cities or municipalities and are therefore usually governed by distant county governments rather than having their own locally elected officials. Social equity assesses

13520-570: The loss of land-based traditions and economies, armed violence (especially against women and indigenous people) environmental degradation , and environmental conflict . The global environmental justice movement arises from these local place-based conflicts in which local environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. There are many divisions along which an unjust distribution of environmental burdens may fall. Within

13650-399: The mass petition march. However, the movement was careful not to cross the line into open rebellion; it tried to rectify the faults in governance through appeals to existing legal precedents and was conceived of as an extra-Parliamentary form of agitation to arrive at a consensual and constitutional arrangement. The force and influence of this social movement on the streets of London compelled

13780-420: The movement and its aims later came to use the term, and it is the term by which they are known to history. Caution must always be exercised in any discussion of amorphous phenomena such as movements to distinguish between the views of insiders and outsiders, supporters and antagonists, each of whom may have their own purposes and agendas in characterization or mischaracterization of it. Social movements have

13910-717: The movement, with white supremacy continuing to shape human relationships with nature and labor. Environmental racism is a pervasive and complex issue that affects communities all over the world. It is a form of systemic discrimination that is grounded in the intersection of race, class, and environmental factors. At its core, environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of certain communities, mostly those that are marginalised, to environmental hazards such as pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental risks. These communities are often located near industrial sites, waste facilities, and other sources of pollution that can have serious health impacts. Environmental racism has

14040-417: The name of that purpose. The early growth of social movements was connected to broad economic and political changes in England in the mid-18th century, including political representation , market capitalization , and proletarianization . The first mass social movement catalyzed around the controversial political figure John Wilkes . As editor of the paper The North Briton , Wilkes vigorously attacked

14170-584: The new administration of Lord Bute and the peace terms that the new government accepted at the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years' War . Charged with seditious libel , Wilkes was arrested after the issue of a general warrant , a move that Wilkes denounced as unlawful – the Lord Chief Justice eventually ruled in Wilkes favour. As a result of this, Wilkes became a figurehead to

14300-479: The organizing and sourcing of AAPI leaders who shared a vision to bring more environmental consciousness to the AAPI community. Pam Tau Lee, Peggy Saika, and Miya Yoshitani led recruitments to envision APEN which then led to its formation in 1993 and sister organizations that work within AAPI communities. APEN has also expanded its network by establishing the Laotian Organizing Project (LOP) as

14430-558: The past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent . Modern movements often use technology and the internet to mobilize people globally. Adapting to communication trends is a common theme among successful movements. Research is beginning to explore how advocacy organizations linked to social movements in the U.S. and Canada use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. Mario Diani argues that nearly all definitions share three criteria: "a network of informal interactions between

14560-495: The placement of hazardous waste facilities in the US and found that race was the most important factor predicting placement of these facilities. These studies were followed by widespread objections and lawsuits against hazardous waste disposal in poor, generally Black, communities. The mainstream environmental movement began to be criticized for its predominately white affluent leadership, emphasis on conservation, and failure to address social equity concerns. The EPA established

14690-533: The relation between popular movements and the formation of new political parties as well as discussing the function of social movements in relation to agenda setting and influence on politics. Sociologists distinguish between several types of social movement examining things such as scope, type of change, method of work, range, and time frame. Some scholars have argued that modern Western social movements became possible through education (the wider dissemination of literature ) and increased mobility of labor due to

14820-408: The relationship between the local and the global or, in other words, to consider scale”. Scale is deeply racialized, gendered, and classed. While the conclusions of climate scientists are remarkably clear that anthropogenic climate change is occurring at a dramatic pace and with increasing intensity. David Pellow writes in his 2016 publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “this

14950-542: The right to a clean environment, a human right according to the United Nations, contradicts Indigenous peoples understanding of environmental justice as it reflects the commodification of land when seen in light of property values. Joan Martinez-Alier 's influential concept of the environmentalism of the poor highlights the ways in which marginalized communities, particularly those in the Global South, are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and

15080-406: The role of exceptional levels of deprivation, grievance, or social strain in motivating mass protest—Resource Mobilization perspectives hold "that there is always enough discontent in any society to supply the grass-roots support for a movement if the movement is effectively organized and has at its disposal the power and resources of some established elite group" Movement emergence is contingent upon

15210-533: The role of sociological factors (race, ethnicity, class, culture, life styles, political power, etc.) on environmental decision making. Poor people and people of colour often work in the most dangerous jobs and live in the most polluted neighbourhoods, their children exposed to all kinds of environmental toxins in the playgrounds and in their homes. In non-Native communities, where toxic industries and other discriminatory practices are disproportionately occurring, residents rely on laws and statutory frameworks outlined by

15340-496: The second great petition drive of 1806), and possibly the upheaval surrounding the French and American Revolutions . In the opinion of Eugene Black (1963), "...association made possible the extension of the politically effective public. Modern extra parliamentary political organization is a product of the late eighteenth century [and] the history of the age of reform cannot be written without it. From 1815, Britain after victory in

15470-554: The site was set for the predominantly Black community of Afton. Its residents protested for six-weeks, leading to over 500 arrests. That the protests in Warren County were led by civilians led to the basis of future and modern-day environmental, grassroots organizations fighting for environmental justice. Deborah Ferruccio, a contributor to the protest, explained in an interview with The Warren Record that those present were ordinary people. Her husband Ken Ferruccio learned of

15600-523: The social sciences. Critical EJ scholars believe that since multiple forms of inequality drive and characterize the experience of environmental injustice, the EJ field would benefit from expanding in that direction. Differentiation between conventional environmental studies and Critical EJ studies is done through four distinctive "pillars". These include, in David Pellow's writing: (1) questions concerning

15730-515: The state … not only did we feed people and give them aid and hygiene kits and things like that, but we also stopped housing from being bulldozed, we cut the locks on schools when they said schools couldn't be opened, and we cleaned the schools out because the students and the teachers wanted that to happen. And we didn't do a one size fits all like the Red Cross would do – we asked the communities, every community we went into, we asked multiple people,

15860-411: The state, but rather how they might do so with a different model of state intervention. Pellow believes that by building and supporting strongly democratic practices, relationships, and institutions, movements for social change will become less dependent upon the state, while any elements of the state they do work through may become more robustly democratic. He contextualizes this pillar with activist

15990-424: The street sex workers, the gangsters, the church leaders, everybody, we talked to them: what can we do to help your neighborhood, to help your community, to help you? And that made us different because for me, it's the overlay of anarchism. Instead of having one franchise thing, you just have concepts, and you just pick the components that match the needs of the people there. The fourth pillar of Critical EJ centers on

16120-654: The streets under the slogan "No liberty, no King." Stripped of the right to sit in Parliament, Wilkes became an Alderman of London in 1769, and an activist group called the Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights began aggressively promoting his policies. This was the first ever sustained social movement: it involved public meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets on an unprecedented scale and

16250-832: The underlying motivation of social movement activism. However, social movement activism is, like in the case of deprivation theory, often the only indication that there was strain or deprivation. Resource mobilization theory emphasizes the importance of resources in social movement development and success. Resources are understood here to include: knowledge, money, media, labor, solidarity, legitimacy, and internal and external support from power elite. The theory argues that social movements develop when individuals with grievances are able to mobilize sufficient resources to take action.The emphasis on resources offers an explanation why some discontented/deprived individuals are able to organize while others are not. In contrast to earlier collective behavior perspectives on social movements—which emphasized

16380-525: The waste on a beach in Haiti after several other countries refused to accept it. After more than ten years of debate, the waste was eventually returned to Pennsylvania. The incident contributed to the creation of the Basel Convention that regulates international movement of toxic waste. Social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve

16510-428: The way that is done, to recognize who is and who is not a member or an allied group : It is often outsiders rather than insiders that apply the identifying labels for a movement, which the insiders then may or may not adopt and use to self-identify. For example, the label for the levellers political movement in 17th-century England was applied to them by their antagonists, as a term of disparagement . Yet admirers of

16640-439: The whites-only section of the bus (although she was not acting alone or spontaneously—typically activist leaders lay the groundwork behind the scenes of interventions designed to spark a movement). This leads into coalesce because now the common dilemma and source of oppression is being pinned down, allowing for organizations and appearance to the public eye to be established. The Polish Solidarity movement, which eventually toppled

16770-708: Was fun, funny, and invented graphic ways of ridiculing dictator Slobodan Milosevic . It turned fatalism and passivity into action by making it easy, even cool, to become a revolutionary, branding itself within hip slogans, rock music and street theatre. Tina Rosenberg , in Join the Club, How Peer Pressure can Transform the World , shows how movements grow when there is a core of enthusiastic players who encourage others to join them. Sociologists distinguish between several types of social movement: A difficulty for scholarship of movements

16900-638: Was sent to Warren County for the protests. Chavis was among the 500 arrested for taking part in the nonviolent protests and is credited with having coined the term “environmental racism” while in the Warren County jail. His involvement, alongside Rev. Leon White, who also served for the UCC, laid the foundation for more activism and consciousness-raising. Chavis would later recall in a New Yorker's article titled “Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina” that while “Warren County made headlines … [he] knew in

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