xv, 177 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and conduct initial validation procedures for the Environmental Justice Advocacy Scale (EJAS). Environmental justice refers to the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits across diverse groups in terms of the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Environmental justice advocacy involves efforts to organize communities and collaborate with policymakers to prevent or remediate environmental injustice. The findings of three studies are presented and describe reliability, concurrent and discriminant validity, and internal structural validity analyses. A national sample of graduate students, practitioners, and faculty in the specialties of counseling psychology, counseling, and social work were surveyed ( n = 43, n = 294, and n = 295, respectively). Study 1 addresses initial scale development procedures that resulted in a 47-item measure. In Study 2, an exploratory factor analysis suggested a three-factor structure (Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills) with excellent reliability and strong concurrent and discriminant validity. The results indicated that two of the subscales were correlated ( r = .16 and r = .1 6, p < .01) with a measure of social desirability. In Study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis failed to replicate the three-factor model. However, four factors (Attitudes, Knowledge-General Environmental Justice, Knowledge-Psychological and Physical Health Environmental Justice, and Skills) explained a statistically significant amount of variance in question items. Suggestions for modification of the measure and recommendations for future research, training, and practice related to environmental justice advocacy for mental health professionals are provided. / Committee in charge: Ellen McWhirter, Chairperson, Counseling Psychology and Human Services; Benedict McWhirter, Member, Counseling Psychology and Human Services; Keith Zvoch, Member, Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership; Michael Dreiling, Outside Member, Sociology

abstract: The natural environment is becoming an increasing concern within the global society and within the realm of social work practice. Social work practitioners and scholars are advocating for incorporating environmental justice into social work education, but have yet to adequately develop the research and strategies to execute this task. To further develop the research behind this concept, 112 social work students’ attitudes toward the environment were analyzed using the New Environmental Paradigm Scale and questions regarding the intersection of social work and the natural environment. Analysis of the data found social work students were less pro-environment than populations within previous studies. Although, social work students reported the desire to learn more about environmental issues and felt as though it would help them become better social workers. Results also suggested social work students did not know where to find information on environmental issues and misconstrued information on environmental issues, whether or not they felt informed. It will be imperative to further develop the research on incorporating environmental justice into social work education through future pilot programs with student attitudes and cultures into consideration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2016

abstract: This study weighs the connection of environmental crisis with race and gender in different cases of environmental crisis and conflicts. The study documents how Indigenous cosmologies and cosmopolitics, and scientific arguments converge in unexpected alliances in the advent of environmental crises. This research focuses on specific instances, or situations related to environmental justice movements addressing the environmental crisis in Mexico (and its convergences to other similar cases). I examine and present a discussion of the research methodologies and methods used to study the ‘environment’ as well as indigenous cosmologies and cosmopolitics. With this, I embark on a research that includes feminist decolonial theory, eco-feminism and material feminisms into a larger project for autonomy and decoloniality. In particular, I discuss one of the concepts that have caught the attention of those studying race and ethnicity in the Americas: mestizaje as an ordinal principle in the context of Mexico. Also, I discuss the inscriptions of the mestiza body in relation to the materiality of race and gender in the context of Latin America. It is shown how the discourse of mestizaje is tangled with the idea of a modern civilization, such as in the Mexican state. Overall, this research analyzes different responses to environmental crises; from environmental activists, community organizers to plastic artists and scientific experts. Also, it includes a literary analysis of contemporary indigenous literatures to show how state sponsored violence and settler colonialism have an incidence in gender violence by placing the female body close to nature. As global environmental problems have risen, this research contributes to the understanding of the underlying factors in environmental crises and conflict that have been overlooked. Herein lies an important possibility to reach a broader audience in different disciplines, ranging from indigenous studies to the global politics of human rights. Furthermore, this research aims to contribute to the work of environmental activists, scholars and scientists with regard to the understanding of how different arguments are used in research and advocacy work, and how they can integrate an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach when addressing environmental justice cases. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Justice Studies 2016

abstract: Air pollution is a serious problem in most urban areas around the world, which has a number of negative ecological and human health impacts. As a result, it's vitally important to detect and characterize air pollutants to protect the health of the urban environment and our citizens. An important early step in this process is ensuring that the air pollution monitoring network is properly designed to capture the patterns of pollution and that all social demographics in the urban population are represented. An important aspect in characterizing air pollution patterns is scale in space and time which, along with pattern and process relationships, is a key subject in the field of landscape ecology. Thus, using multiple landscape ecological methods, this dissertation research begins by characterizing and quantifying the multi-scalar patterns of ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan region. Results showed that pollution patterns are scale-dependent, O3 is a regionally-scaled pollutant at longer temporal scales, and PM10 is a locally-scaled pollutant with patterns sensitive to season. Next, this dissertation examines the monitoring network within Maricopa County. Using a novel multiscale indicator-based approach, the adequacy of the network was quantified by integrating inputs from various academic and government stakeholders. Furthermore, deficiencies were spatially defined and recommendations were made on how to strengthen the design of the network. A sustainability ranking system also provided new insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the network. Lastly, the study addresses the question of whether distinct social groups were experiencing inequitable exposure to pollutants - a key issue of distributive environmental injustice. A novel interdisciplinary method using multi-scalar ambient pollution data and hierarchical multiple regression models revealed environmental inequities between air pollutants and race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic classes. The results indicate that changing the scale of the analysis can change the equitable relationship between pollution and demographics. The scientific findings of the scale-dependent relationships among air pollution patterns, network design, and population demographics, brought to light through this study, can help policymakers make informed decisions for protecting the human health and the urban environment in the Phoenix metropolitan region and beyond. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Biology 2014

This study argues that the basis of all environmental justice variations is the consideration of fairness, equity and justice in the environmental processes that resolve environmental problems. A Procedural Environmental Justice Model (PEJM) has been developed for the purpose of evaluating the procedural environmental justice content of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation in South Africa and Zambia. EIA as a tool for mitigating adverse environmental impacts arising from development activities aims at identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the bio-physical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken. This makes it an apt case study for evaluating how procedural environmental justice works. The PEJM developed in this thesis is important because it can be used as a mechanism for evaluating how procedural environmental justice works in practice. Apart from developing the PEJM, this research provides an in- depth evaluation of procedural environmental justice and proceeds, in a novel manner, to focus on South Africa and Zambia. The concept of environmental justice originates from the civil liberties campaigns of the 1960s and the more recent Environmental Justice Movement in the United States. It was historically concerned with widespread distributive inequalities which manifested as discrimination mainly on the basis of race and economic status in environmental matters. In more recent years, environmental justice concerns have become more profound owing to the diversity and gravity of global environmental problems such as global warming and climate change, natural resources depletion and widespread air and water pollution. The effects of these global environmental problems have been predicted to affect inhabitants of developing countries more than those of the developed ones, thereby emphasising procedural environmental justice concerns.This research shows that in the present day environmental parlance, environmental justice should be increasingly used to connote inclusiveness in addressing global, national and grassroots environmental problems. There has been a distinct tendency to move beyond the traditional description of environmental justice as being distributive, or primarily concerned with the allocation of environmental advantages and disadvantages. This is due to the realisation that distributive environmental justice aspects are inadequate in addressing historical and present day environmental challenges. This research emphasises that environmental justice incorporates procedural, corrective and social aspects of justice. The promotion of inclusive participation or procedural environmental justice transcends all conceptions of the concept. Therefore, in order to promote environmental justice, environmental legislation must focus on procedural features that incorporate effective public participation mechanisms.

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