<p> This dissertation explores the social history and cultural meanings associated with mullet (<i>Mugil cephalus</i>), a common inshore fish, in southwest Florida from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Centuries of harvesting, trading, and eating mullet allowed diverse populations of people to adapt to a challenging environment, generating a commonweal that connected common folk&mdash;harvesters and consumers&mdash;to the state&rsquo;s inshore waters. Systems of production and social relations based on the low-cost fish contributed to place-based notions of identity and collective allegiance to inshore waterways dedicated to provision rather than proceeds. As Americanization of the region progressed, conflicts widened between environmentally situated modes of life in the region and imperial abstractions of the terrain designed to render its inhabitants&mdash;human and otherwise&mdash;into resources capable of fueling capitalist growth. During the twentieth century, mullet widely came to be considered a &ldquo;trash&rdquo; fish, of little value as a food and expendable as a commodity. This downward shift in social status corresponded with the rising economic and political stature of Florida&rsquo;s seascapes as sites of leisure production. Promoted through conservation rhetoric, a successful 1994 citizens&rsquo; ballot initiative banned statewide use of gill nets, the primary mullet-harvesting gear, a move that confirmed the success of instrumentalist logic that correlated social worth with capitalist potential. </p><p> Analysis of the history and symbolic significance of mullet production and consumption provides insight into the power relations that shape the ecological, economic, and political structure of waterways as social domains. This dissertation argues that the classification of mullet and the people associated with it as species of American &ldquo;trash&rdquo; grew out of longstanding efforts by federal and state officials to integrate Florida into the cultural boundaries of the nation, which eventually placed an accessible, food-producing seascape outside the rubric of the public good. Mullet-dependent people's defense of the species as a commodity, alongside their opposition to the commoditization of the seascape as a playground, offers valuable critiques of the social injustices and class bias that infuse contemporary rhetoric and practices regarding sustainability and conservation.</p>

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.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed July 24. 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-114).

<p> This dissertation analyzes efforts to understand and build urban ecosystem health and justice, extending scholarly literatures on urban ecology, political ecology and environmental justice. Through examination of cases from around the world, as well as from my own sustained work in Albany, New York, the research demonstrates that urban ecosystem health and justice has powerful cultural, social and political economic dimensions as well as (more often acknowledged) ecological and technical dimensions. The research also advances an analytic framework that can guide education as well as entrepreneurial initiatives to build urban ecosystem health and justice. The research strives to provide a theoretical as well as practical guide to the second generation of the global environmental justice movement. Rather than focus on recurrent patterns of environmental injustice, particularly in communities already vulnerable because of race and class, this research identifies positive paths forward through education, community programming, law and technical innovation.</p><p>

<p> A robust body of research suggests that inclusive and collaborative approaches to ecological restoration, specifically watershed management, are not only successful but also optimal for long-term sustainability. This research is embedded within the context of the EPA regulated Chesapeake Watershed restoration, which spans six states and requires multiple levels of collaboration and engagement. The research used ethnographic methods to explore what motivated community leaders to engage in water resource conservation and restoration initiatives in Havre de Grace, Maryland, a city on the shores of the Upper Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Watershed is a pivotal example of both global and United States trends in degraded water resources. The research questions for the study were: How do community leaders express their understanding of water-related issues through a sense of place, nature connection, and local knowledge? How can community leaders catalyze community engagement in support of water-related environmental restoration, education, and conservation? What are the common points of concern, optimism, and motivation articulated by community leaders to conserve the freshwater and estuarine water resources? Data was collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed using a qualitative coding method. The research contributes to an understanding of how best practices in community leadership and community engagement can be mobilized to conserve and restore critical ecosystems within the context of a broader watershed management initiative. The research results are useful for community organizers and stakeholder institutions with an interest in protecting and restoring degraded natural environments through locally relevant initiatives.</p><p>

This work describes ethnographic research completed in order to understand how local community members in Denton, Texas define, conceptualize, and speak about sustainability. The goal of this research is to encourage a more representative approach to sustainability initiatives within the City of Denton by uniting community ideas with local governance. Data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with residents, participant observation at community meetings, and quantitative survey analysis. Through the use of a Foucauldian framework for analysis, in conjunction with David Harvey's "entrepreneurial city," and work done in the field of environmental justice, this study highlights a potential link between neoliberal approaches to city governance and community perceptions of sustainability. This research concludes by calling for more representation of all community members within local sustainability initiatives, and provides several suggestions for how this can be achieved.

No description available.

The provision of adequate sanitation is an essential service. In terms of schedule 4B of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 108 of 1996 (the Constitution), such provision is a function of local government. It falls within the developmental mandate of local government in that it is a basic service that contributes to the quality of people’s lives. However, the lack of access to adequate sanitation is a problem in South Africa, as roughly 17 million people are still without access to improved sanitation. This lack has a detrimental impact on people’s lives and merits an enquiry into the role of local government in providing such services. In this study, the legal mandate of local government in relation to sanitation is explored from an environmental justice perspective, as access to sanitation is an environmental issue. Although there is no explicit constitutional right to sanitation, it is argued that such a right is implicitly recognised by means of the provision of other rights in the Constitution, legislation and policy documents. The study further unpacks the mechanisms and instruments available to municipalities to enable them to achieve the objectives of environmental justice when providing sanitation services. The urban and rural landscape in South Africa have different features, and the people who live in them have different needs. For this reason the features and challenges of urban and rural municipalities are discussed separately, thus establishing the different approaches that urban and rural municipalities might have to follow in the provision of sanitation services. The study concludes with recommendations and the identification of the various governance tools that municipalities may use in order to realise the right to sanitation whilst achieving the objectives of environmental justice. / LLM, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The provision of adequate sanitation is an essential service. In terms of schedule 4B of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 108 of 1996 (the Constitution), such provision is a function of local government. It falls within the developmental mandate of local government in that it is a basic service that contributes to the quality of people’s lives. However, the lack of access to adequate sanitation is a problem in South Africa, as roughly 17 million people are still without access to improved sanitation. This lack has a detrimental impact on people’s lives and merits an enquiry into the role of local government in providing such services. In this study, the legal mandate of local government in relation to sanitation is explored from an environmental justice perspective, as access to sanitation is an environmental issue. Although there is no explicit constitutional right to sanitation, it is argued that such a right is implicitly recognised by means of the provision of other rights in the Constitution, legislation and policy documents. The study further unpacks the mechanisms and instruments available to municipalities to enable them to achieve the objectives of environmental justice when providing sanitation services. The urban and rural landscape in South Africa have different features, and the people who live in them have different needs. For this reason the features and challenges of urban and rural municipalities are discussed separately, thus establishing the different approaches that urban and rural municipalities might have to follow in the provision of sanitation services. The study concludes with recommendations and the identification of the various governance tools that municipalities may use in order to realise the right to sanitation whilst achieving the objectives of environmental justice. / LLM, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015