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EiJ TALKS
Environmental Movements
Image from A Fierce Green Fire Supplements. WATCH: Women in Environmental Movements in India and Kenya (2 min) and Love Canal, Children and Toxic Waste (1 min)
Welcome to EiJ Talks, the bulletin for the course “Environmental Injustice”!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Our course|program is offered by the University of California Irvine, on the ancestral homelands of the Tongya and Acjachemen nations. We thank Native-Lands.ca for building civic data capacity to visualize and learn about local indigineous history. Also see Teen Vogue’s Indigenous Land Acknowledgement Explained.
READ | WATCH
A Fierce Green Fire (100 min)
Changing Educational Paradigms (12 min)
The Story of Broke (8 min)
STORYLINES
Our storyline for this week travels with environmental movements around the world, examining what has motivated them, their strategies, their successes and their failures. It is an inspiring story -- that still has many chapters to be worked out. We hope it will help you think about roles you can play in the future.
A Fierce Green Fire is an award-winning film about the characters, goals and strategies of environmental movements in different times and places. The films’ timeline is interesting to explore, noticing how the focus of the environmental movement has changed over time. Don’t miss these critical events: publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962), Love Canal (1978+), the emergence of the environmental justice movement with a focus on environmental racism (early 1980s).
Ken Robinson’s fast paced description of Changing Educational Paradigms lays ground for thinking about the kinds of education needed to support next generation environmental movements. The presentation is about education in general -- not environmental education per se -- but points to a core environmental challenge: enrolling students in the kind of deep learning, creativity and collaboration that will be needed to address today’s environmental problems.
The Story of Broke is about how we can pay for it all -- education, and a transition to a greener economy. This video was made in 2011 but has renewed relevance today as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people say that we can’t afford investments in education and the environment today because of the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic. We need to be more creative!
[Note the style of the last two presentations -- both are quite caffeinated -- so think about the effectiveness of both their arguments and mode of delivery.]
As you move through this shared content, think about what the environmental movement has accomplished so far -- and needs to take on in the future.
EMICS & ETICS
Throughout this course, you’ve worked to strengthen your understanding of the character and utility of qualitative research and knowledge -- recognizing the value of both emic and etic viewpoints. An emic viewpoint is the viewpoint of the people anthropologists study -- people in polluted communities or government officials responsible for keeping those communities safe, for example. An etic viewpoint is that of the anthropologist, bringing in many different types of analysis.
The work of anthropologist Mariana Arjona Soberón powerfully illustrates how emic and etic viewpoints can be combined. Her research helps us understand why people become environmental activists, how they understand the problems they face and what future they are fighting for. By working alongside and talking with activists, she learns emic perspective. Soberón also provides etic perspective on environmental activism, examining how the technologies they use, the data they have access to, and the types of stories they tell shape their activism -- sometimes in subtle ways that activists themselves may be unaware of. Soberón has done participant observation and interviewing with environmental activists in Mexico. Read her account of her work below.
ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDIES ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN MEXICO
Mariana Arjona Soberón studied anthropology at Yale University in the USA, followed by an interdisciplinary master's degree in environmental sciences at the University of Cologne. She was born and raised in Mexico and has been touring the world through academia. Her research examines interactions between digital media, environmental understandings, power, science, and activism. The working title of her dissertation is "#ViralEnvironmentalism—Digital Landscapes of Environmental Activism, Fridays for Future and Beyond." The dissertation focuses on the Fridays for Future movement in Mexico. Soberón has over five years of experience in international cooperation projects in higher education. Currently, she is the academic manager of the International Masters of Environmental Sciences at the University of Cologne where she also lectures on Environmental Communication and Narrative.
By Mariana Arjona Soberón
Digital media has reshaped environmental activism in significant ways, changing, communication pathways, meaning-making practices, and how people collaborate and strategize political change. This is illustrated in the Fridays for Future movement, which has garnered worldwide attention since 2018. In my work, I study the Fridays for Future Movement and community of practice in Mexico.
I am curious about the ways in which knowledge is made, communicated and transformed through digital media, and the new uses of digital media that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are some of my research questions: What role do forms of communication play in mediating, reimagining and redefining environmental understandings and realities? What does it mean to be an environmental activist in Mexico? How do environmental activists relate to and understand science, and how do their understandings of science shape them and the movements they are part of? What futures are they fighting for?
Through ethnographic methods, namely participant observation and in-depth interviews, I have been able to build relationships with individuals involved in Mexico’s Friday for Futures movement. Initially, I planned to travel to Mexico to get to know people. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn’t able to do this. In this recalibrated present, step one in beginning research was reaching out to the Fridays for Future group on Instagram. Writing that DM was a truly nerve wracking process. What if they didn't respond? What if they didn't want to work with me? I felt like I had one shot to make it in. Building rapport with your field is always an interesting process, doing this 100% through digital means was a first for me. Fortunately, after several days I was able to meet a woman who liked my research idea and began introducing me to other activists. Working with them has consisted of long interviews via video chat, attending online events, group meetings, digital strikes, etc.
One such series of events was aimed at pressuring the Mexican government to ratify the Escazú agreement. This agreement is the first environmental human rights treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean with a special provision for environmental human rights defenders. Members of the Fridays for Future group constantly hear of environmental activists who disappear or are murdered, many from indigenous communities. Although a large percentage of the activists I work with are not from indigenous communities, and they are aware that this fact protects them and is a privilege which is rooted in a colonial history of white supremacy, they are still choosing to become “environmental activists,” an at-risk group. These murders and disappearances feed into a collective imaginary of what it means to be an environmental activist, of not wanting to be too visible and constantly having the threat of violence in the background. Being an environmental activist does not mean the same thing everywhere, and through my work I am learning about the specificities of being one in Mexico.
By observing the ways in which these activists have conversations, the ways in which they negotiate their feelings on being activists, how they deal with eco-anxiety, what they publish, how they make decisions within the group, what events they organize, etc. I have learned about the specific repertoire of knowledge that make up the Fridays for Future movement in Mexico. Through these practices, specific ideas of the future are made real, and I can get to know more about the futures they are fighting for.
This recently published book review, Voices From a Slow Moving Nuclear Calamity, points to another good example of the way emic and etic viewpoints can be interlaced to create rich understanding of people, places, problems and possible remedies. The book reviewed -- The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices From the Fight for Atomic Justice, by Trisha Pritikin - is about about people living near the Hanford nuclear production complex (in the state of Washington), which supplied the plutonium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. The facility continued to produce plutonium for the US nuclear arsenal throughout the Cold War. In the 1980s, the US government acknowledged that thousands of people living near the plant were exposed to a plume of nuclear fallout. In the 1990s, many of the people exposed joined a lawsuit, which dragged on until 2015. Even by then, only a few people had gotten to tell their story. The book was written to give them a voice, and to critically analyze how environmental law in the United States works -- providing both emic and etic perspective. The book is about the experiences of people living downwind of the Hanford facility (and called “downwinders''), describing their experiences with both radiation-related disease and the lawsuit. The book also provides the author’s own analysis of the shortcomings of the laws and legal processes available for cases like this. While written by a lawyer and anti-nuclear activist (not an anthropologist), the book makes its case with qualitative data. The reviewer of the book, Lucy Tiven, says that the testimonies of downwinders are the heart of the book, providing “intimate snapshots of life downwind and downriver of Hanford, detailing the devastating cost of the plant’s culture of secrecy in the words of exposed people.” Tiven also says that Pritikin brings in important analyses of her own, providing important perspectives from law and public health.
POLITICS & ETHICS
This course|program helps you develop the capacity to analyze political and ethical issues so that you are prepared to act on them in a sophisticated way. A political analysis draws out stakeholders, identifying winners and losers, who has power and doesn’t, and where injustice is occurring. An ethical analysis considers what needs to be done.
In the position posts and paper that you’ll work on this week, you'll consider an array of political and ethical questions.
You’ll return to Richmond, California, for example (which you read about in our week on slow disaster). There are striking health disparities between Richmond and adjacent, more wealthy communities. Richmond residents deal with both routine pollution and potential for worse case scenario chemical disasters. Richmond also has a long history of racist housing discrimination, which set the stage for intense and enduring environmental racism and injustice. In your position paper, you’re asked to consider how environmental injustice in Richmond should be addressed. Should industrial facilities in Richmond be closed? Should homes be bought out? Should residents be given a monthly financial stipend as a form of restitution?
Trevor Noah’s arguments about reparations and white privilege are useful for thinking about ways to address environmental racism, as is the recent article What is Owed, by Nikole Hannah-Jones (founder of the 1619 project). Hannah-Jones is interviewed here (20 min) and here, discussing intersectional injustices in Black communities in the United States and how today’s Black Lives Matter movement is multi-racial and multi-generational -- creating new opportunities for systemic change.
Another question you’re asked to consider has a more international frame, asking how the United State should assume responsibility for its huge, disproportionate contribution to global warming. See Why the US Bears The Most Responsibility for Climate Change, in One Chart.” Should the United States pass laws that require individuals to restrict activities that produce carbon pollution, for example? Should energy companies be held legally and financially responsible for the costs of climate change mitigation? Does the United States need policies and programs to accept climate refugees?
Puzzling through questions like these, learning how your peers think about them and figuring out your own position is challenging -- and very important. You’ll need robust political and ethical perspective throughout your life.
STRATEGIES & TACTICS
In this course|program, we’ve explored long term strategies for positive social change, and the tactics people are using to get there. This week, we gain historical perspective, learning about how the environmental movement has changed over time, drawing in new stakeholders and problems, developing an array of tactics (from tree hugging to Greenpeace’s media stunts, to policy proposals and lawsuits). Our course storyline has focused on the environmental justice movement and growing recognition that communities of color are much more likely to be near polluting facilities than white communities. This is environmental racism and evident in health disparities (differences in health status linked to social, economic and environmental disadvantages).
The time is ripe for moving beyond environmental injustice. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the extent of health disparities in the United States, and how long-running disadvantages in communities of color (high air pollution and blood lead levels, for example) make these communities particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infections.
Environmental injustice is also an important focus forPresident Biden. Read more about the Biden administration’s plans and progress here. President Biden also has a major ($2 trillion!) plan to address climate change that directly addresses racial justice (through considerable spending in disadvantaged communities). Already, he’s appointed a “Dream Team” to lead his Climate Task Force: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the leading proponent of the Green New Deal, and former Secretary of State John Kerry, an architect of the Paris climate accord (the team also brings together opposing sides within the Democratic party). Read about Biden’s plan to address climate change in all agencies of the federal government.
The US Congress has also moved forward, issuing an exciting new report, Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy and Just America. The plan emphasizes the need to build “a clean energy economy that values workers, centers environmental justice, and is prepared to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.” The plan calls for the creation of many new jobs and investment in infrastructure. It also recognizes the disproportionate effects of environmental hazards in minority communities. The plan has been described (in an excellent June 2020 Vox article) as “the most detailed and well-thought-out plan for addressing climate change that has ever been a part of US politics — an extraordinary synthesis of expertise from social and scientific fields, written by people deeply familiar with government, the levers of power, and existing policy.” The plan has been endorsed by moderate Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But there is still important debate. Proponents of the Green New Deal argue that the new Congressional plan doesn’t go far or fast enough -- away from fossil fuels, for example, or to guarantee jobs and universal health care. The youth-led Sunrise Movement (in the image below, from this explanation of the Green New Deal) wants to go farther, but still see the plan as "a real sign that young people are changing politics in this country and the establishment is scrambling to catch up," Sunrise activists have used a wide array of tactics -- sit-ins and street marches, educational programming, political candidate endorsements -- to
pressure the committee to take on the full extent of the climate crisis.
We hope that you are inspired by the accomplishments of the environmental movement -- and will consider how you can help take it into its next phrase. There are many ways to be involved. See, for example, possibilities with Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, EarthJustice, the Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future, and the California Environmental Injustice Alliance.
TIPS & TOOLS
You’ve done a lot of impressive case study research in just a few weeks! Your case studies are published on the Disaster-STS Network research platform and will be featured in our Instagram. They will be valuable in efforts to advance environmental justice in the communities you studied. Your case study research will also be an important addition to your resume. Scroll down here and see a sample resume (which also includes tips and templates for building your resume). You can include a section in your resume that looks something like this:
Research experience and publications
Fall 2019, I was part of a ten-person research group that produced three case studies focused on potential chemical disasters, routine pollution and climate change impacts and planning in California communities. Through this work, I gained experience with the following: collaborative research processes and digital tools; finding and interpreting data from sources like CalEnviroScreen, EPA EJScreen, and the US Government Accounting Office; stakeholder identification and analysis; prioritizing problem solving action items; qualitative research design; ethical analysis; report writing, including bibliography development. The case studies are published at the links below: (include all three case studies)
Perales, N., M. Berache, J. Perez, T. J. Okamoto, Z. Jin, V. Chu, H. Dayrit, A. Amiri, D. Hayworth. 2019. Combo Disaster Case Study: Alameda. UCI Anthropology 25A, Environmental Injustice. Disaster STS Network. University of California Irvine.
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Reading Aalok's annotation about how the collaboration discourse is really dominated by collaboration-out rather than collaboration-within, I started thinking about another shift that might help frame our essay: we also have a different understanding and enactment of what a mode is. Their modes are mostly end products or already formed, perhaps a legacy of coming from visual anthroplogy: mode is equivalent to media, it seems, although we should think about whether that is true. PECE accommodates relatively traditional media-modes in this sense: images, audio, text. We don't do smells, we don;t do games, etc. -- and this is an infrastructural effect. For all the talk of multimodalism there is no talk of multi-infrastructuralism.
Although they start to get there through a mention but not much analysis of "platform":
In other words, the ASA report recognizes social media at the cost of ignoring other dimensions of media that enfold our academic work. Consider social media as more than platforms for dissemination. First, social media have become a means of research—forums where research and scholarship are formulated, negotiated, and organized. Second, social media have become sites of collaborative media production, places where media have flowed between anthropologists, interlocutors, and communities. These processes defy the easy assignation of authorship but also suggest a more egalitarian form of knowledge production. Finally, social media (by definition) support forms of dissemination that are simultaneously reproductions through remix, recontextualization, and the secondary production of added media content. That is, media on social media platforms are dynamic and protean in a way that other forms of scholarly dissemination (even those that lay claim to reflexivity) may fail to be.
Anyway, our modes maybe are: the archival mode, the collaborative analytic mode, and the experimental communication/publication mode. And on the latter score, the infrastructural issue can be approached via the fact that we had to put the AA article up here because some of our collaborators can't access Anthrosource. We needed infrastructure that could accommodate the need to make that available to us but keep it inaccessible to others because of copyright, placing the archival mode in tension with the publication mode, and forcing us to develop infrastructure that could accommodate and work with/in that tension.
It doesn't really support collaboration because it places the article BEHIND A FUCKING PAYWALL but hey thanks for the "invitation"Read more
I'm uploading this article because we're using it to inform our revision of the PECE essay for AA. We're all going to annotate this Invitation.Read more