In this dissertation, I draw together an archive of twentieth and twenty-first century North American authors and artists who explore the settler colonial and racist ideologies of the Anthropocene, the proposed name for a contemporary moment in which anthropogenic forces have forever altered the Earth system. I hold that the “the Anthropocene” names a moment in which localized environmental injustices have become planetary. Addressing the representational challenges posed by the epoch requires engaging the underlying cultural assumptions that have long rationalized injustices as necessary to economic prosperity and narrowly conceived versions of national wellbeing. Works of literature and cultural representation can use literary and artistic form to this end. In this dissertation, I identify one such formal strategy, which I term insensible realism. As a form of realism committed to representing the real impacts of discursive and material practices, insensible realism refers to the rejection of rationality and Enlightenment ideals that have been used to justify the White supremacy, settler colonialism and environmental destruction that instantiates the Anthropocene. A realism of the insensible also refers to my archive’s concentration on what cannot be easily sensed: the epoch’s social and environmental interactions that are physically, temporally, geographically and/or socially imperceptible to dominant society. I argue that these works eschew accepted notions of rationality and empiricism in favor of using non-dominant cultural traditions and theories of environmental justice to address the problems the Anthropocene poses. Challenging the dominant logics that have been used to rationalize racist, settler colonial and environmental violence of the Anthropocene creates space for alternative environmental commitments and narratives. Throughout the dissertation, I draw on theories from women of color feminism, environmental justice scholars, settler colonial studies, theories of race, and new materialism. Through a critical environmental justice framework, I argue that the authors and artists that make up my archive develop a literary and artistic approach to environmental justice, using forms of representation to highlight—and challenge—the intersections of racism, settler colonialism and environmental destruction. / 2019-10-17

abstract: Low-income communities of color in the U.S. today are often vulnerable to displacement, forced relocation away from the places they call home. Displacement takes many forms, including immigration enforcement, mass incarceration, gentrification, and unwanted development. This dissertation juxtaposes two different examples of displacement, emphasizing similarities in lived experiences. Mixed methods including document-based research, map-making, visual ethnography, participant observation, and interviews were used to examine two case studies in Phoenix, Arizona: (1) workplace immigration raids, which overwhelmingly target Latino migrant workers; and (2) the Loop 202 freeway, which would disproportionately impact Akimel O'odham land. Drawing on critical geography, critical ethnic studies, feminist theory, carceral studies, and decolonial theory, this research considers: the social, economic, and political causes of displacement, its impact on the cultural and social meanings of space, the everyday practices that allow people to survive economically and emotionally, and the strategies used to organize against relocation. Although raids are often represented as momentary spectacles of danger and containment, from a worker's perspective, raids are long trajectories through multiple sites of domination. Raids' racial geographies reinforce urban segregation, while traumatization in carceral space reduces the power of Latino migrants in the workplace. Expressions of care among raided workers and others in jail and detention make carceral spaces more livable, and contribute to movement building and abolitionist sentiments outside detention. The Loop 202 would result in a loss of native land and sovereignty, including clean air and a mountain sacred to O'odham people. While the proposal originated with corporate desire for a transnational trade corridor, it has been sustained by local industry, the perceived inevitability of development, and colonial narratives about native people and land. O'odham artists, mothers, and elders counter the freeway's colonial logics through stories that emphasize balance, collective care over individual profit, and historical consciousness. Both raids and the freeway have been contested by local grassroots movements. Through political education, base-building, advocacy, lawsuits, and protest strategies, community organizations have achieved changes in state practice. These movements have also worked to create alternative spaces of safety and home, rooted in interpersonal care and Latino and O'odham culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2014

abstract: Decades of research confirms that urban green spaces in the form of parks, gardens, and urban forests provide numerous environmental and social services including microclimate regulation, noise reduction, rainwater drainage, stress amelioration, etc. In post-industrial megacities of the twenty-first century, densely populated, violent and heavily polluted such as Mexico City, having access to safe and well-maintained green public space is in all respects necessary for people to maintain or improve their quality of life. However, according to recent reports by the Mexican Ministry of Environment, green public spaces in Mexico City are insufficient and unevenly distributed across the sixteen boroughs of the Mexican Distrito Federal. If it is known that parks are essential urban amenities, why are green public spaces in Mexico City scarce and so unevenly distributed? As a suite of theoretical frameworks, Urban Political Ecology (UPE) has been used to study uneven urban development and its resulting unequal socio-ecological relations. UPE explores the complex relationship between environmental change, socio-economic urban characteristics and political processes. This research includes a detailed analysis of the distributive justice of green public space (who gets what and why) based on socio-spatial data sets provided by the Environment and Land Management Agency for the Federal District. Moreover, this work went beyond spatial data depicting available green space (m2/habitant) and explored the relation between green space distribution and other socio-demographic attributes, i.e. gender, socio-economic status, education and age that according to environmental justice theory, are usually correlated to an specific (biased) distribution of environmental burdens and amenities. Moreover, using archival resources complemented with qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with key actors involved in the creation, planning, construction and management of green public spaces, this research explored the significant role of public and private institutions in the development of Mexico City's parks and green publics spaces, with a special focus on the effects of neoliberal capitalism as the current urban political economy in the city. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2015

Equal accessibility to green space for urban residents is not a given. This thesis research has aimed to identify how urban residents that move using a wheelchair organise their visits to various types of green space located at different distances, focussing on the use value and synergy between such green spaces. A qualitative approach has been applied to address this aim, using the yet rather unestablished photo elicitation method to explore the experience of wheelchair users in green space. The data demonstrated that wheelchair users have a standard set of green spaces that are frequently visited, which can be organised in the portfolio of natural places framework. Furthermore, the findings identify the accessibility of green space for wheelchair users as an environmental justice issue, proposing implications for inclusive green spaces of varying type and located at different distances. This study forms a way forward to the integration of disability studies and environmental justice literature, has generated a better understanding of the accessibility and use value of green space for wheelchair users and can serve as a springboard for further studies in urban planning that consider an integrated approach to green space, shifting the focus beyond people’s direct residential environment.

How do transitions to sustainability emerge? Save Rosia Montana Campaign is a representative socio-environmental movement, that cancelled an open-cast gold mining project in the urban-village of Rosia Montana, Romania. After almost 20 years of conflict with the mining project initiators, the people that oppose mining are now struggling for implementing tourism as an alternative development of the place, that could allow the possibility of sustainable development. The research aims to assess the extent that Rosia Montana represents an example of an environmental conflict that generates change towards sustainable development. The paper reconstructs the history of conflict around Rosia Montana by using the theoretical framework of ecological distribution conflict, while it's investigating the outcomes that this struggle produced. By revealing the visions of sustainable development and the challenges experienced by the opposition to mining, we can understand the notion of alternatives in conflict. The alternatives to development from Rosia Montana are questioning conventional perceptions of development and democracy, while requesting social transformation for meeting their needs and enhancing their quality of life.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T14:49:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1902667 bytes, checksum: b53ea90e8a85053e1029051180b6d460 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research focuses on the Theater of the Oppressed as a tool for Environmental Education. Although the initial motivation of this theater technique was to discuss the oppressive relationships between human beings, our work had the intention to understand how this methodology can be undertaken with a group of students in a public school to talk about the environmental crisis. Our research was made with a group of volunteer students from the Professor Antônio Gomes Middle and High School, located in the neighborhood of Mutirão-Bayuex/PB during the second semester of 2008 and the first semester of 2009. Throughout this time, we coordinated thirty workshops on the Theater of the Oppressed techniques and discussed themes connected to the environment on each acti vity. At the end of each semester , the group presented a play focusing on the garbage on the school grounds and class rooms and on the devastati on the Mata do Xém-xém State Park, located in the same neighborhood. At the beginning of our research and at the end of our workshops, we applied questionnaires with the Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh and Twelfth grade students to discover if there was an increase in the level of understanding of environmental problems and concepts like nature, environment and environmental education. Our research confirms that the Theater of the Oppressed can be a tool to facilitate a critical Environmental Education and promote Environmental Justice in a participatory method. / Este trabalho tem o seu foco na utilização do Teatro do Oprimido como instrumento para a Educação Ambiental. Embora a finalidade inicial desta técnica teatral fosse lidar com as relações de poder opressivas entre os seres humanos, a nossa pesquisa teve a intenção de compreender como esta metodologia pode ser levada aos alunos de uma escola pública para discutir a problemática ambiental. Nossa investigação foi realizada com um grupo de educandos voluntários da Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental e Médio Professor Antônio Gomes, localizada no Bairro do Mutirão-Bayeux/PB no segundo semestre de 2008 e no primeiro semestre de 2009. Durante este período, coordenamos trinta oficinas lúdico-pedagógicas e discutimos temas ligados a questão ambiental a cada atividade. Ao final de cada semestre, o grupo apresentou peças teatrais com a temática do lixo na escola e sobre a degradação do Parque Estadual da Mata do Xém-xém, localizado no mesmo bairro. Para averiguar o resultado da pesquisa, foram aplicados questionários com as turmas dos 8° e 9° Anos do Ensino Fundamental e das 1ª e 2ª Séries do Ensino Médio ao início e ao término do nosso trabalho, onde pudemos constatar um crescimento no nível de entendimento da maioria dos educandos das referidas turmas acerca da problemática ambiental e de conceitos como natureza, meio ambiente e educação ambiental, confirmando que o Teatro do Oprimido pode ser utilizado como ferramenta pedagógica para facilitar uma Educação Ambiental crítica e promover a Justiça Ambiental de forma participativa.

abstract: Cordon pricing strategies attempt to charge motorists for the marginal social costs of driving in heavily congested areas, lure them out of their vehicles and into other modes, and thereby reduce vehicle miles traveled and congestion-related externalities. These strategies are gaining policy-makers` attention worldwide. The benefits and costs of such strategies can potentially lead to a disproportionate and inequitable burden on lower income commuters, particularly those commuters with poor accessibility to alternative modes of transportation. Strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of cordon pricing for disadvantaged travelers, such as discount and exemptions, can reduce the effectiveness of the pricing strategy. Transit improvements using pricing fee revenues are another mitigation strategy, but can be wasteful and inefficient if not properly targeted toward those most disadvantaged and in need. This research examines these considerations and explores the implications for transportation planners working to balance goals of system effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. First, a theoretical conceptual model for analyzing the justice implications of cordon pricing is presented. Next, the Mobility Access and Pricing Study, a cordon pricing strategy examined by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is analyzed utilizing a neighborhood-level accessibility-based approach. The fee-payment impacts for low-income transportation-disadvantaged commuters within the San Francisco Bay area are examined, utilizing Geographic Information Systems coupled with data from the Longitudinal Employment and Household Dynamics program of the US Census Bureau. This research questions whether the recommended blanket 50% discount for low-income travelers would unnecessarily reduce the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the cordon pricing system. It is proposed that reinvestment of revenue in transportation-improvement projects targeted at those most disproportionately impacted by tolling fees, low-income automobile-dependent peak-period commuters in areas with poor access to alternative modes, would be a more suitable mitigation strategy. This would not only help maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of the cordon pricing system, but would better address income, modal and spatial equity issues. The results of this study demonstrate how the spatial distribution of the toll-payment impacts may burden low-income residents in quite different ways, thereby warranting the inclusion of such analysis in transportation planning and practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Design and Planning 2013

abstract: The act of moving water across basins is a recent phenomenon in Arizona water policy. This thesis creates a narrative arc for understanding the long-term issues that set precedents for interbasin water transportation and the immediate causes--namely the passage of the seminal Groundwater Management Act (GMA) in 1980--that motivated Scottsdale, Mesa, and Phoenix to acquire rural farmlands in the mid-1980s with the intent of transporting the underlying groundwater back to their respective service areas in the immediate future. Residents of rural areas were active participants in not only the sales of these farmlands, but also in how municipalities would economically develop these properties in the years to come. Their role made these municipal "water farm" purchases function as exchanges. Fears about the impact of these properties and the water transportation they anticipated on communities-of-origin; the limited nature of economic, fiscal, and hydrologic data at the time; and the rise of private water speculators turned water farms into a major political controversy. The six years it took the legislature to wrestle with the problem at the heart this issue--the value of water to rural communities--were among its most tumultuous. The loss of key lawmakers involved in GMA negotiations, the impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham, and a bribery scandal called AZScam collectively sidetracked negotiations. Even more critical was the absence of a mutual recognition that these water farms posed a problem and the external pressure that had forced all parties involved in earlier groundwater-related negotiations to craft compromise. After cities and speculators failed to force a bill favorable to their interests in 1989, a re-alignment among blocs occurred: cities joined with rural interests to craft legislation that grandfathered in existing urban water farms and limited future water farms to several basins. In exchange, rural interests supported a bill to create a Phoenix-area groundwater replenishment district that enabled cooperative management of water supplies. These two bills, which were jointly signed into law in June 1991, tentatively resolved the water farm issue. The creation of a groundwater replenishment district that has subsidized growth in Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima Counties, the creation water bank to store unused Central Arizona Project water for times of drought, and a host of water conservation measures and water leases enabled by the passage of several tribal water rights settlements have set favorable conditions such that Scottsdale, Mesa, and Phoenix never had any reason to transport any water from their water farms. The legacy of these properties then is that they were the product of the intense urgency and uncertainty in urban planning premised on assumptions of growing populations and complementary, inelastic demand. But even as per capita water consumption has declined throughout the Phoenix-area, continued growth has increased demand, beyond the capacity of available supplies so that there will likely be a new push for rural water farms in the foreseeable future. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2013

No description available.

Com base nas contribuições de (MARTÍNEZ-ALIER, 2009), (SEN,2009), (ACSELRAD,2009) e (RIBEIRO, 2008), este trabalho investigou o modelo de intervenção promovido pelo Programa Social e Ambiental dos Igarapés de Manaus PROSAMIM realizado com recursos do Governo do Estado do Amazonas e empréstimos contraídos com o Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento BID, para intervenções urbanísticas, habitacionais e ambientais em cursos dágua localizados na bacia hidrográfica do Educandos, decretadas, pelo município, como Área de Especial Interesse Social. Projeto urbanístico que se não fosse os 77,26% de deslocamentos, por indenizações, impactando outros cursos dágua, seria um modelo inovador de abordagem socioambiental. Neste contexto a proposta da investigação foi espacializar o fenômeno dos deslocamentos e o pós-reassentamento na dimensão da casa e do urbano para os remanejados em unidades habitacionais no Parque Residencial Manaus e na dimensão do urbano para os reassentados em casas populares nos Conjuntos Habitacionais João Paulo II, Cidadão V, Nova Cidade e Presidente Lula. Cujos resultados, fundamentados em oficinas diagnósticas e dados georreferenciados sinalizaram para as áreas remanescentes fragilidade quanto à adequação do modelo habitacional às especificidades de uma cidade sobre as águas, como é Manaus e à cultura e clima local, impondo novos hábitos de consumo e adequação nas relações sociais, com o novo entorno. Para os reassentados nos quatro Conjuntos Habitacionais, se identificou com as variáveis que as principais ameaças advêm da falta de equipamentos e serviços urbanos mínimos necessários à dignidade humana. Associado aos efeitos adversos ocasionados pela falta de proteção dos recursos hídricos levando ao comprometimento a fauna aquática, a sociedade e os ecossistemas. O método DRUP, orientou as técnicas de pesquisa com as oficinas diagnósticas, pesquisa documental, entrevistas, e registro fotográfico para o recorte temporal do ano de 2003 a 2012. / Based on contributions (MARTÍNEZ-ALIER, 2009), (SEN, 2009), (ACSELRAD,2009) and (RIBEIRO, 2008), this study investigated the intervention model promoted by the Social and Environmental Stream Program of Manaus PROSAMIM, and it was accomplished with resources from Amazonass governement and loans from the Inter-American Development Bank IDB, to urban interventions, housing and environmental in watercourses located in the water basin of Educandos, proclaimed by the town as a Special Area of Social Interest. Urban project that if it werent for the 77.26% of displacements, for indemnities, impacting other watercourses, it would be an innovative model of socio-environmental approach. In this context the proposal of the research was spatialize the phenomenon of displacement and post- resettlement in the dimension of the houses to the relocation of housing units in Parque Residencial Manaus and dimension of the urban people to the resettled citizens in popular houses in the Housing Complexes João Paulo II , Cidadão V, Nova Cidade and President Lula, whose results, based on diagnostic workshops and georeferenced data signaled to remaining weaknesses areas, in relation to the adequacy of housing model to the specifications of a city on the water, such as Manaus and the culture and local climate, imposing new consumption habits and adequacy to social relations, with the new surroundings. For the resettled citizens in the four Housing Complexes, it has been identified, with the variables, that the main threats come from the lack of equipment and minimum urban services necessary for human dignity. Associated with adverse effects caused by the lack of protection of water resources leading to commitment with the aquatic fauna, society and ecosystems. The method DRUP, guided search techniques with diagnostic workshops, data research interviews, and photographic record for the time frame of 2003 to 2012.