Thesis (Ph. D. in sociology)--Washington State University. / Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: The Santa Cruz River Basin shared by Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona is one example of transboundary water resources in the borderlands region that accurately portrays the complexities of binational management of common pool resources, such as water. Industrialization fueled by trade liberalization has resulted in migration to and urbanization along the border, which have created human rights issues with the lack of water and sanitation, groundwater overdraft of the shared aquifers, and contamination of these scarce resources. Effluent from wastewater treatment plants continues to play increasingly important roles in the region, the use of which has been a source of tension between the two countries. Contributing to these tensions are the strains on binational relations created by border militarization and SB 1070. A shift in water management strategies to increase pubic participation within decision-making, increase the flexibility of the water systems, and increase cross-border collaboration is needed to ensure human and ecological sustainability in the Santa Cruz River Basin. By incorporating direct communication and local capacity as per common pool resource theory, recognizing the connections and implications of management actions through socio-ecological systems understanding, and promoting the organic drivers of change through ecologies of agents, just and vigorous futures can be envisioned and advanced. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2015

The rural revolution, as coined by the Ontario Landowners' Association (OLA), has gained considerable momentum in the past five years. Its activism in the pursuit of environmental justice, initiated by the perception of a government too intrusive into rural affairs, has evolved both externally and internally of governmental decision making structures. The association has moved from primarily using purposeful illegality, such as demonstrations, to active involvement in provincial politics. In this context, the qualitative research presented in this thesis is guided by three research objectives: (1) to develop a conceptual framework of environmental justice; (2) to examine the utility of the components of this conceptual framework within the rural revolution context; and, (3) to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the Ontario Landowner Associations' influence on rural public policy efforts to attain environmental justice. These three research objectives seek ultimately to address the central research purpose: To explore the concept of activism as a tenet of environmental justice by examining the case study of the OLA. The primary focus of the central research purpose, therefore, is on the traits of the OLA, or associated research themes, that have the potential to influence public policy content, its implementation, and its acceptance in rural Ontario. These associated research themes are: the OLA's targeted issues, the OLA's mission, leadership, activism forms, barriers and facilitators to activism, membership, and any additional insights. Four stakeholder groups sensitive to environmental public policy directed at rural communities have been consulted. They are provincial and municipal elected politicians (architects of policy), managers and planners of provincial ministries (implementers of policy), rural and agricultural commodity and interest groups (recipients of policy), and the Ontario Landowners' Association (challengers of policy). A conceptual framework of environmental justice has been proposed and is presented here. Moreover, the perceptions revealed by the respondents allow for an examination of the utility of the environmental justice 'instruments' and 'barriers and facilitators' sections of the conceptual framework. Research results show that the OLA's influence on rural public policy is perceived to be based on the organization's credibility, which is in turn perceived as dependent upon a combination of the associated research themes. It is hypothesized that these findings not only pertain to the OLA, but have determined the variables responsible for the perception of an effective activism group in general. Furthermore, this research has reiterated the importance of perception studies. These reflections may well transcend the OLA case study and may prove meaningful for all stakeholder groups in the understanding of activism seeking to sustain or reclaim environmental justice. These reflections may also facilitate mutual respect for different points of view and differing contributions to environmental management.

No description available.

No description available.

abstract: Environmental Justice Witnessing in the Modernist Poetry of Lola Ridge, Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Elizabeth Bishop analyzes the poetic forms used by four modernist American women poets to trace depictions of social oppression that are tied to specific landscapes. My focus is on what I term "environmental justice witnessing," which I define as accounts that testify to experiences of injustices that affect humans and the environments they inhabit. Integrating theories of witnessing, which to date have focused exclusively on humans, with environmental justice criticism, I fashion a lens that highlights the interconnectedness of social and environmental problems. In this way, I theorize the study of texts of witness and how they document the decay, disease, and exploitation of urban and rural landscapes in the twentieth century. In this dissertation, I focus on Lola Ridge's "The Ghetto" (1918), Muriel Rukeyser's "The Book of the Dead" (1938), Gwendolyn Brooks' "In the Mecca" (1968), and poems about Brazil from Elizabeth Bishop's Questions of Travel (1965) and New Poems (1979). I argue that these women poets depict environmental injustices as an inherent facet of social injustice and do so by poetically connecting human bodies to environmental bodies through sound, diction, figurative language, and imagery. In Environmental Justice Witnessing, I expand arguments made by environmental scholars about the exchange of environmental elements among humans, animals, and landscapes to include the way poets reflect this transfer poetically. The poetry of Ridge, Rukeyser, Brooks, and Bishop allows me to investigate the ways the categories of race, gender, and class, typically thought of as human qualities, are integrally tied to the geographic, national, and cultural bounds in which those categories are formulated. This argument has clear implications on the study of poetry and its environmental contexts as it invites discussions of the transnational conceptions of global citizenship, examinations of the relationships among communities, the environment, and overarching power structures, and arguments surrounding the ways that poetry as art can bring about long-term social and environmental awareness. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2015

<p> This research examines how clean air advocates and authorities at the regional air pollution control district conceptualize and communicate about air pollution and environmental injustice in California&rsquo;s San Joaquin Valley. Philosophies of justice, framing, and social movement building strategies were analyzed through two case studies of campaigns that produced changes at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District aimed at advancing public health and environmental justice. Research methods included archival analysis, semi-structured interviews, and auto-ethnographic accounting of the researcher&rsquo;s involvement in the campaigns.</p><p> Findings demonstrate that despite varying social constructions of the San Joaquin Valley&rsquo;s air pollution problems by advocates and authorities in terms of philosophies of justice, framing, and some of the strategies promoted to create clean air, these two groups cited several examples of how these case studies have resulted in emissions reductions for impacted communities and advanced environmental justice. Both groups also critiqued the political economy of the Valley, demonstrating how deeply rooted and pervasive air pollution and environmental injustice are in the region. These shared critiques and successes reveal that although these groups and individuals have notably divergent approaches on many issues, common ground can still be found through creatively harnessed conflict and negotiation.</p>

acase@tulane.edu / There are an estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illness per annum in the United States, with a majority of the illnesses associated with eating in a restaurant. Previous research into the causes of foodborne illness have primarily focused on factors that are internal to the restaurant. This research examines both internal components as well as external factors from the surrounding community that could influence how a food establishment operates. Inspection data, providing the basis for this analysis, came from routine inspection reports from Maricopa County, Arizona and the State of Florida. Additional evaluations are from randomly sampled restaurants, containing information on the occurrence of specific risk factors for foodborne illness, captured from States A and B. External community demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey was also used. The routine inspection data was analyzed using a general estimating equations approach, and the risk factor study data was analyzed via a tobit regression. This approach allowed for the identification of the specific variables and their relative effect on the food safety performance of the establishment The only external factor to have an influence on restaurant food safety performance was the level of market competition, both near the restaurant and at a further distance from the restaurant. Other socio-demographic variables of the area were not found to have a significant effect. Internal factors, such as the level of food-handling and the food-safety related training held by employees were found to have an effect on the restaurants food safety performance. This study has shown the utility in assessing the compliance status of each risk factor, and the limitations of only using a count of violations. Additionally, concordant with most facilities operating in a sanitary manner, large sample sizes are required to identify an effect from a covariate. / 1 / Adam Kramer

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (School of Criminology) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Southern rural farming communities and northern Indigenous communities in the Prairie Provinces of Canada each experience the Globalized Agri-Food System (GAFS) as detrimental to their food sovereignty. This study explores the Northern food crisis from an Indigenous perspective. It examines the degree to which rural-settler and Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives can benefit by combining their resistance to the GAFS through North-South collaborative networks, and the pivotal role that youth and youth learning might play in achieving these ends. Insights derived from a youth-focused garden project in the South were complemented by interviews with youth and adults in both locations. The outcomes of this research position the Northern food crisis as a justice issue with connections to culture, environment and food, which in turn reflect a historic and ongoing colonization of Indigenous territories and communities. Successful intercultural alliances towards Alternative Food Systems (AFS) must work towards Indigenous food sovereignty in addressing these issues.