Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 67 p. : maps (part col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-56).

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.

<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> Previous research highlights the relationship between gender and activism in various environmental justice (EJ) grassroots oriented contexts, including but not limited to: the coalfields of Central Appalachia, Three Mile Island, and the Pittston Coal Strike movement. However, little research examining the relationship between gender and activist&rsquo;s efforts in relation to hydraulic fracturing exists, primarily because this movement itself is relatively new. From 2012-2014, four communities and one county collectively organized in an effort to ban or enact a moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking. Anti-fracking activists in Northern Colorado deem this technological advancement as poorly controlled and dangerous to public health and the environment. On the other hand, pro-fracking activists argue that this process is highly engineered, adequately controlled, and necessary to boost and sustain local oil and gas development in Colorado and the United States. Historically, grassroots environmental justice organizations are often created and lead by poor and minority communities as these communities experience the brunt of problematic industry practices. The setting of Northern Colorado is unique in this sense because the communities trying to halt oil and gas development are opposite of what one might expect, as they are predominately white, middle class, and educated. Thus, my study fills current gaps that exist in the literature and adopts an intersectional approach to address the subsequent research question broadly: how do gender, race, and class intersect and impact the nature and extent of activist&rsquo;s efforts in Northern Colorado&rsquo;s Hydraulic Fracturing movement? Ultimately, I find that gendered and raced identities, such as &ldquo;mother&rdquo; or &ldquo;steward to the earth&rdquo; play an imperative role in explaining women&rsquo;s entry into the fracking movement, while men pull on a spectrum of identities. Furthermore, I find that traditional gendered divisions of labor help to elucidate the differing rates of participation among men and women in the movement, as well as the roles that activists fulfill in grassroots anti-fracking organizations. Ultimately, I argue that exploring gender, in conjunction with race and class on various analytical levels, contributes to a broader understanding of the nuances of activism in environmental justice movements.</p>

<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.