Environmental Inequality Formation: Toward a Theory of Environmental Injustice

There are a number of conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in the literature on environmental justice and environmental inequalities in need of refinement. Using data from the recycling industry, the author proposes an environmental inequality formation (EIF) perspective to address the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) 2000-01, Vol.43 (4), p.581-601
Main Author: PELLOW, DAVID N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Business
Case studies
Conservation
Decision making
Demography
Environment
Environmental justice
Environmental racism
Environmentalism
Hazardous materials
Industrial development
Industries
Inequality
Injustice
Interest Groups
Justice
Landfill
Local history
Medical wastes
Methodological problems
Methodology
Minority & ethnic groups
Racism
Recycling
Relationship
Social conditions & trends
Social Inequality
Social Justice
Social Processes
Social Theories
Sociology
State laws
Theoretical approaches
USA
Waste
Workers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There are a number of conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in the literature on environmental justice and environmental inequalities in need of refinement. Using data from the recycling industry, the author proposes an environmental inequality formation (EIF) perspective to address these issues. The EIF perspective synthesizes three major points that are largely neglected in research on environmental inequalities: (a) the importance of process and history, (b) the role of multiple stakeholder relationships, and (c) a life-cycle approach to the study of hazards. The EIF model captures sociological dynamics in ways that suggest that environmental racism and inequalities originate and emerge in a much more complex process than previously considered. Theory building in this area of research will aid scholars in understanding the mechanisms that produce environmental inequalities as well as their socioenvironmental consequences.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764200043004004