Sociology 5161, Section 001
Environmental Inequality in the
Spring 2007
Mondays
Professor: Liam
Downey, Ph.D.
Office/Phone: Ketchum
218A, 303-492-8626
E-mail: Liam.Downey@colorado.edu
Office
Hours: W
Course
description and goals: Environmental
inequality, environmental racism, and environmental justice are relatively new
concepts that gained national attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s due
to the efforts of grassroots environmental justice activists and professional
researchers. Calling into question the mainstream environmental movement’s
assumption that environmental degradation affects everyone equally, early
environmental justice activists and researchers made several novel claims
including but not limited to the following: 1) the poor, the working class, and
people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards, 2)
the poor, the working class, and people of color have significantly less access
to environmental amenities, such as parks, open space, and wilderness areas,
than do whites and wealthier individuals, 3) mainstream environmental
organizations have ignored environmental problems and concerns in poor, working
class, and people of color communities, 4) federal, state, and local
governments have been slow to address these communities’ environmental
concerns, 5) environmental inequality is inseparable from other forms of
inequality, 6) environmental thought and activism need to be broadened to
include all the different environments in which people live, work, and play and
7) individuals and communities should be fully represented in decision making
processes that affect them.
Because these claims
are too broad to cover in a single semester, we will focus primarily on the
following questions. What are environmental inequality, environmental racism, and
environmental justice? What evidence do we need to obtain and what do we need
to do methodologically in order to determine whether environmental inequality
is a serious social problem? What are the health effects of living near environmental
hazards? Should we apply the precautionary principle in determining whether a
neighborhood is environmentally safe? When
environmental inequality exists, why does it exist? When it does not exist, why
not? What are the structural causes of environmental inequality, both in the
In addition to
addressing these questions, it is my hope that by the end of the semester you
will have the intellectual background necessary to conduct environmental inequality
research and get your research published in peer review journals.
Required
CuLearn
You can find the on-line readings and an
electronic copy of the syllabus on CuLearn.
I will also use CuLearn to give last minute instructions. This means
that you need to log onto CuLearn on a regular basis.
Logging
onto CuLearn:
Login through CUConnect: (1) go to
https://cuconnect.colorado.edu/ (2) login using your CU Login Name and
IdentiKey password; (3) after login, click on Courses tab; (4) on the left side
of screen, CuLearn will display; (5) click on the link for SP2007:B1:SOCY5161 -
001; (6) click on the appropriate icon.
Course
assignments:
In addition to your reading assignments, you will write a 12-15 page final
paper, write weekly reading summaries, write a detailed article review, and participate
regularly in class discussion. Additional minor requirements are listed below.
Weekly reading
summaries:
Each week, each student will be responsible for a brief summary of all the
readings (1-2 pages, double spaced, total) and a brief set of comments or
questions about the readings (1/2 to 1 page total). You must submit this to me,
either in my mailbox or via e-mail, by
Class participation: Class participation is
crucial in a graduate seminar. Participation involves taking part in class
discussions and asking and answering questions in class in such a way as to
indicate to me that you have done the reading and are actively engaged with the
material. To receive participation credit you must contribute to class
discussion regularly throughout the semester and your comments must be
thoughtful and insightful. In other words, quality is just as important as
quantity.
The final
paper: The
final paper can take various forms. For example, you can write an empirical
paper or grant proposal on any topic that falls under the broad umbrella of
environmental inequality research; you can write a critical review of existing
research in which you focus on a particular ‘environmental inequality/justice’
topic, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the literature in this topical
area, and discuss future directions research should take; you can develop a new
theoretical argument in which you attempt to explain some ‘environmental
justice phenomenon/outcome’ that has not been satisfactorily explained; or you
can propose some other type of paper. Whatever type of paper you choose to do,
you need to submit a 2 page proposal to me on March 12 in which you summarize
your topic and convince me that enough information is available for you to
write a good paper (you can, of course, turn in your proposal earlier if you
wish).
Detailed
article review:
On Feb. 8, you will turn in a detailed article review of one of the Feb. 12
readings (to be assigned/chosen on Feb. 5). In this review, you will summarize
the findings, advances, main contributions, strengths and weaknesses of your
assigned article. You will also discuss the methods, data, study area, unit of
analysis, and comparison population used in your reading. I will forward these reviews
to the entire class and everyone will read them before class meets on the 12th.
Assignments Due
Dates %
Of Final Grade
1. Final paper
a. 2 Page Proposal March 12th 5%
b. Final Paper
2. Weekly
3. Article Review February
8th 10%
3. Class Participation All
semester 15%
If you miss class, you will lose half a
letter grade off your final grade for the first class you miss and a full letter
grade for each additional class you miss!!!
Additional course requirements:
1.
Students are responsible for reading all the assigned books and articles.
2.
Class attendance is mandatory and expected of all
students
3.
Class participation is expected. As noted
above, class participation makes up 15% of your grade.
Weekly Topics and
*Week 1 (Jan. 15): Martin Luther King, Jr.
*Week 2
(Jan. 22): Course Introduction and the
Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement.
Important questions: What factors led to
the rise of the environmental justice movement? What links does this movement
have to earlier social movements? What does social movement theory have to say
about the rise of the environmental justice movement? What major claims do movement
activists make? How do environmental justice movement activists compare their
movement to the traditional environmental movement? How do environmental
justice activists view the relationship between humans and the natural world?
How do their views compare to traditional environmentalist views on the
relationship between humans and the natural world? (The readings are listed on the next page)
1. Bryant, Bunyan and Paul
Mohai. 1991. “Environmental Racism: Issues and Dilemmas.”
2. Bryant, Bunyan and Paul
Mohai. 1992. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-9 in Race and the Incidence of
Environmental Hazards: A Time for Discourse, edited by B. Bryant and P.
Mohai.
3. Bullard, Robert D. 1994.
“Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color.”
4. Dorceta Taylor, 2000.” The
Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm”. American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 43(4), 508-580.
5. Hofrichter, Richard.
1993. Toxic Struggles: The Theory and
Practice of Environmental Justice.
6. Principles of
Environmental Justice: developed at the First People of Color Environmental
Leadership Summit.
Week 3 (Jan. 29): Defining and Operationalizing
Environmental Inequality and Determining Whether or Not it Exists.
Important Questions: What are environmental
inequality, environmental racism, and environmental justice? What is racism?
How do we know environmental inequality, environmental racism, and
environmental justice when we see them? How do we prove they exist? How do our operationalizations
of these terms, and our determination of whether they exist, change depending
on the definitions of environmental inequality, environmental racism, and
environmental justice we employ? What reasonable definitions of these terms can
we develop? What evidence do we need to prove that different forms of environmental
inequality exist?
1.
Grossman,
Karl. 1994 “The People of Color Environmental
2.
Holifield,
Ryan. 2001. “Defining Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism.” Urban
Geography 22:78-90. Read pp. 78-80
only.
3. Terms and definitions
from
4.
Pulido,
Laura. 2000. “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban
Development in
5.
Pulido,
Sidawi, and Vos. 1996. “An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in
6.
Downey,
Liam. 1998. “Environmental Injustice: Is Race or Income a Better Predictor?” Social
Science Quarterly 79:766-778.
7.
Professor
Downey will discuss
Week 4
(Feb. 5): Quantitative urban environmental inequality research: A review of the
literature.
Important questions: What pattern of
results have environmental inequality researchers uncovered? Are results consistent
across studies? If not, how do we explain contradictory findings? Some scholars
argue that evidence for the existence of environmental inequality is weak and
inconsistent. If they are right, how do we explain why the evidence is weak and
inconsistent? What methods do researchers use? What methodological problems
exist for environmental inequality researchers? What methodological
disagreements exist in the field? How could we improve on the methods employed by
researchers? What definitions of environmental inequality, environmental racism,
and racism do researchers use? What important subordinate social groups do researchers
ignore?
(
1. Szasz, Andrew and
Michael Meuser. 1997. “Environmental Inequalities: Literature Review and
Proposals for New Directions in Research and Theory.” Current Sociology
45:99-120.
2. Bowen, William. 2002.
“An Analytic Review of Environmental Justice Research: What Do We Really Know?”
Environmental Management 29:3-15.
3. Ringquist, Evan J. 2005.
“Assessing Evidence of Environmental Inequities: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
24(2): 223-247.
4. Mohai, Paul. 1995. “The
Demographics of Dumping Revisited: Examining the Impact of Alternate
Methodologies in Environmental Justice Research”. The
5. Sadd, James, Manuel
Pastor, J. Thomas Boer, and Lori D. Snyder. 1999. “Response to Comments by
William M. Bowen.” Economic Development Quarterly 13:135-140.
6. Krieg, Eric J. 1998. “Methodological
Considerations in the Study of Toxic Waste Hazards.” The Social Science
Journal, Vol. 35(2): 191-201. Read pp.
191-195 only.
Week 5 (Feb. 12): Quantitative
urban environmental inequality research: more recent and methodologically
sophisticated work.
Important Questions: What new methods do
researchers employ? How have researchers improved upon earlier work? What new
social groups are included in the research? What are the shortcomings of
quantitative work? What knowledge does qualitative work give us that
quantitative work fails to give us? How might quantitative and qualitative work
complement each other? How can we explain the pattern of results found in quantitative
environmental inequality research? In other words, how do we explain
environmental inequality when it exists? How do we explain the absence of environmental
inequality when it does not exist?
1.
Downey,
Liam. 2006. “Environmental Racial Inequality in
2.
Pastor,
Manuel Jr., James L. Sadd, and Rachel Morrello-Frosch. 2004. “
3.
Morrello-Frosch,
Rachel and Bill M. Jesdale. 2006. “Separate and Unequal: Residential
Segregation and Estimated Cancer Risks Associated with Ambient Air Toxics in
4.
Each of us will review one of the following
articles, both in writing and in class
1. Downey, Liam. Forthcoming 2007. “Environmental Inequality in Metropolitan
2. Downey, Liam. 2005.
“Single Mother Families and Industrial Pollution,”
3. Mennis, Jeremy and Lisa
Jordan. 2005. “The Distribution of Environmental Equity: Exploring Spatial Nonstationarity
in Multivariate Models of Air Toxic Releases.” Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 95:249-268.
4. Ihlanfeldt, Keith and
Laura Taylor. 2003. “Externality Effects of Small-Scale Hazardous Waste Sites:
Evidence from Urban Commercial Property Markets.” Journal of Environmental
Economics and Management 47:1-23.
5. Derezinski, Daniel D.,
Michael G. Lacy, and Paul B. Stretesky. 2003. “Chemical Accidents in the United
States, 1990-1996.” Social Science Quarterly 84:122-143.
6. Ash, Michael and T.
Robert Fetter. 2004. “Who Lives on the Wrong Side of the Environmental Tracks?
Evidence from the EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model.” Social
Science Quarterly 85:441-462.
7. Stretesky, Paul and
Michael Lynch. 2002. “Environmental Hazards and School Segregation in
Hillsborough County, Florida, 1987-1999.” The Sociological Quarterly
43:553-573.
8. Morello-Frosch, Rachel,
Manuel Pastor, and James Sadd. 2001. “Environmental Justice and
9. Mennis, Jeremy. 2002.
“Using Geographic Information Systems to Create and Analyze Statistical
Surfaces of Population and Risk for Environmental Justice Analysis.” Social
Science Quarterly 83:281-297.
Reading
list continues onto the next page.
10. Chakraborty, Jayajit and
Marc Armstrong. 2001. “Assessing the Impact of Airborne Toxic Releases on
Populations with Special Needs.” Professional Geographer 53:119-131.
11. Atlas, Mark. 2002. “Few
and Far Between? An Environmental Equity Analysis of the Geographic
Distribution of Hazardous Waste Generation.” Social Science Quarterly
83:365-378.
Weeks 6 and 7 (Feb. 19 and 26): General readings in urban
ecology, social stratification, and racial and ethnic inequality: using
sociological theory to explain environmental inequality.
Important questions: What factors shape
race and class inequality in urban settings? How are race and class inequality
and conflict related to one another? How do race and class conflict and
inequality shape urban space? What does industrial location theory tell us about
where firms site industrial facilities? What do urban and race theory tell us
about the location of social groups in urban space? How are local urban
conditions related to broader national and global conditions?
1. Hayter, Robert. 1997. The
Dynamics of Industrial Location.
2. Gordon, David M.,
Richard Edwards, and Michael Reich. 1982. “Segmented Work, Divided Workers.”
3. Wilson, William Julius.
1978. The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American
Institutions.
4. Massey, Douglas S. and
Nancy A. Denton. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the
Underclass.
5. Massey, Douglas. 1990.
“American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.”
1. Portes, Alejandro and
Robert D. Manning. 1986. “Immigrant Enclaves: Theory and Empirical Examples” in
Susan Olzak and Joane Nagel (eds.), Competitive
Ethnic Relations. Read pages 47-51
and 61-66.
2. Massey, Douglas. 1985.
“Ethnic Residential Segregation: A Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Review.”
Sociology and Social Research 69:315-350. Read pp. 315-321 and 339-340.
3. Piore, Michael. 1970.
“The Dual Labor Market”. Pp. 435-438 in the 2nd edition of the
Grusky reader.
4. Beck, E. M., Patrick M.
Horan, and Charles M. Tolbert. 1978. “Stratification in a Dual Economy: A
Sectoral Model of Earnings Determination.” American Sociological Review
43:704-720. Read pages 704-708 and
717-718.
5. Waldinger, Roger. 1996. Still
the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial
6. Sugrue, Thomas J. 1996. The
Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar
Week 8
(March 5): Quantitative Explanatory
Important questions: What theories and
models do researchers use to explain why environmental inequality exists
or does not exist? What methods do researchers use to determine why
environmental inequality exists? What hypotheses and models do they test? How
successful are these researchers at meeting their stated goals? How could we
improve upon their research? What does this research teach us about why
environmental inequality exists? What do we still need to learn? Given what you
know about urban and race theory, how would you explain the existence of urban
(or rural) environmental inequality? How would you design a study to determine
why environmental inequality exists? What questions would you want to answer
that have been poorly answered or left unasked? How would qualitative work
improve upon the quantitative work we read this week?
(
1. Downey, Liam. 2005. “The
Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Equality in
This
article is based on my dissertation. I will discuss the qualitative historical
aspects my dissertation in class.
2. Pastor, Manuel, James
Sadd, and John Hipp. 2001. “Which Came First? Toxic Facilities, Minority
Move-In, and Environmental Justice.” Journal of Urban Affairs 23:1-21.
3. Shaikh, S. and J.
Loomis. 1999. “An Investigation into the Presence and Causes of Environmental
Inequity in
4. Been, Vicki and F.
Gupta. 1997. “Coming to the Nuisance or Going to the Barrios? A longitudinal
Analysis of Environmental Justice Claims.” Ecology Law Review 24:1-56.
5. Oakes, John Michael,
Douglas L. Anderton, and Andy B. Anderson. 1996. “A Longitudinal Analysis of
Environmental Equity in Communities with Hazardous Waste Facilities.” Social
Science Research 25:125-148. Read
tables carefully, skim text.
6.
Week 9
(March 12): Qualitative Explanatory
Important questions: What theories and
models do researchers use to explain why environmental inequality exists
or does not exist? What methods do these researchers use to determine why
environmental inequality exists? What hypotheses and models do they test or
develop? How successful are these researchers at meeting their stated goals? How
could we improve upon their research? What do we learn from this research? What
does this research teach us about environmental inequality that quantitative
research fails to teach us? What do we still need to learn? How would you
design a qualitative study to determine why environmental inequality exists? Do
qualitative and quantitative environmental inequality research, as currently
practiced, complement each other? If not, should they? Can we understand
environmental inequality using a single methodological approach or a single
methodological style (i.e. qualitative vs. quantitative)?
1. Pulido, Laura. 2000.
“Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in
2. Perfecto, Ivette. 1992.
“Pesticide Exposure of Farm Workers”, Pp. 177-204 in Bryant, Bunyan and
3. Szasz, Andrew and
Michael Meuser. 2000. “Unintended, Inexorable: The Production of Environmental
Inequalities in
4. Pellow, David. 2000.
“Environmental Inequality Formation: Toward a Theory of Environmental
Injustice.” American Behavioral Scientist 43:581-601.
5. Hurley, Andrew. 1995. Environmental
Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980.
6. Boone, Christopher.
2002. “An Assessment and Explanation of Environmental Inequity in
7. Boone, Christopher G.
and Ali Modarres. 1999. “Creating A Toxic Neighborhood In
8. Professor Downey will discuss
Week 10 (March 19): Experts Versus Non-Experts:
Scientists, Community Activists, and Pollution.
Important questions: What role should
scientific experts (such as you) and the scientific approach play in
environmental justice activism and environmental inequality research? What role
should community activists and the ‘community activist’ approach play in
environmental inequality research? Is there a proper balance between the
scientific approach and ‘community activist’ approach? How important is the 95%
confidence level? Should we stick with 95% scientific certainty or should we be
more flexible? If flexibility is required, how much flexibility and when is it
necessary? How do the arguments presented in these readings about scientific
proof affect our appraisal of environmental inequality research? Do they
suggest that environmental inequality is worse than researchers believe? Do
they suggest that the negative effects of residential proximity to
environmental hazards is worse than researchers believe? Should we integrate
the precautionary principle into public policy and law? How would this affect
public policy and legal disputes? How would integrating the precautionary
principle into environmental inequality research affect our appraisal of that
research and the seriousness of environmental inequality as a social problem?
1. Tesh, Sylvia. 2000. Uncertain
Hazards: Environmental Activists and Scientific Proof.
2. Brown, Phil and Edmin J.
Mikkelsen.
3.
4. CHEJ Web page: “Don’t’
Pay By The Polluters’ Rules”.
5. Law journal reading on
risk assessment?
***Week 11: No Class on March 26th (spring break)***
Week 12
(April 2):
No class will be held on April 2.
Week 13
(April 9):
Global Environmental Inequality.
Important questions: Is there global
environmental inequality? If so, what form does it take and what are its structural
determinants? How do its structural determinants compare with the structural
determinants of environmental inequality in the
1. Kimbrell, Andrew. 1996.
“Biocolonization: The Patenting of Life and the Global Market in Body Parts”.
Pp. 131-145 in Mander, Jerry and Edward Goldsmith (Eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy.
2. Shiva, Vandana and Radha
Holla-Bhar. 1996 “Piracy By Patent: The Case of the Neem Tree”. Pp. 146-159 in
Mander, Jerry and Edward Goldsmith (Eds.) The
Case Against the Global Economy.
3. Finnegan, William. 2002.
“Leasing the Rain”. The New Yorker,
pp. 43-53. Read first page and the first
paragraph of the second page of the article.
4. Klare, Michael. 2002. Resource Wars.
5. Clapp, Jennifer. 2001. Toxic
Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Wastes from Rich to Poor Countries.
6. Korten, David C. 1995. When
Corporations Rule the World.
7.
8. Chirot, Daniel and
Thomas D. Hall. 1982. “World Systems Theory”. American Review of Sociology. Read
pages 81-87.
9.
Portes,
Alejandro. 1976. “On the Sociology of National Development: Theories and
Issues”.
10.
Wallach,
Lori and Patrick Woodall. 2004. Whose Trade Organization? A Comprehensive
Guide to the WTO.
Week 14
(April 16): No Class on April 16.
Week 15
(April 23): Environmental Inequality on Native American Reservations.
Important questions: Is there environmental
inequality on Native American reservations? If so, what form does it take? How
does environmental inequality on Native American reservations compare with
global environmental inequality and with urban environmental inequality in the
1.