Essay 2: Street Science In Street Science, Jason Corburn (2005) provides an overview of the history and politics of environmental health and justice work, utilizing case studies from the U.S. Corburn (2005: 27) locates a foundational problem with environmental health field, writing, “[R]isk-based problem framing and decision-making processes largely ignore evidence that is more informal, experiential, tacit, and explicitly value laden.” This is problematic because it ensures that the process will only marginally, if at all, include and prioritize the voices of the citizens in the community affected by environmental hazards. Despite this foundational flaw, Corburn illustrates the many efforts that have been made to bring the public into …show more content…
While a national and global environmental justice movement exist, many of the battles for environmental justice take place at the local level, and a central tool of these battles is street science. At its core, street science necessarily values the local knowledge that people in a community gain through experience and share through storytelling. Street science also depends on collaborations between locals and professionals, including scientists, lawyers, doctors, and environmental health experts (Corburn 2005). This relationship between locals and professionals can manifest in different ways, but often involves professionals training locals to collect samples and data from their own neighborhood. The coupling of local knowledge with professional knowledge, precipitates what Corburn (2005: 41) calls the co-production of of expertise. He …show more content…
In the co-production model, even young people, who are traditionally excluded from democratic practices in the U.S. are encouraged to offer their expertise and engage in scientific methods of collection. Another key characteristic of street science is its social character (Corburn 2005: 44). Street science is rooted in ideas of community, which can be defined geographically, culturally, or socially. Subsequently, social and cultural practices such as storytelling become central to street science. Lastly, Corburn (2005) characterizes street science as a practice. As a practice, street science places emphasis on both knowing and doing. Street science is a process of collaboration, engagement, storytelling, and taking
In Jason Corburn’s book, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice, one of the examples used to explain his term street science is the West Harlem Environmental Action (WEACT). According to research compiled, the case of WEACT and its use of street science to address growing health concerns is one of the more famous examples demonstrating how street science can become empowering to the community. Furthermore, this case study exhibits broader implications that can arise from street science regarding policy changes. The area of West Harlem is adversely affected by environmental health justice concerns. The creation of WEACT was to establish an organization that would directly address community concerns, rather
The word “environment” was given then a contrasting connotation. Unlike the traditional environmental movement, which was condemned for ignoring the experience of black people and the lower class, the environment was restructured as a setting where people live. Supporters started to focus comprehensively on making the topic evenhanded. Advocates classified this equality into three expansive types: technical, geographic, and societal equities. Technical impartiality is apprehensive on unbiased manner or justice on the employment of central regulations, assessment criterion, and enforcement of environmental rules. Geographic fair play is concentrated on finding groups of people and their propinquity to green peril, ...
Nydia Velazquez is a representative for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District, which includes parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. In her essay “In Search of Justice,” Velazquez describes several unjust situations that happened in her district. She points out that the residents of Greenpoint, which is the heart of her district, are among the poorest in the country. She argues that large corporations carelessly dump their waste next to poor minorities’ living areas and emphasizes the terrible air conditions in her district. Velazquez believes that minority communities are treated unfairly under the environmental law, which targets large corporations.
There are many political and public health issues in which environmental racism is a contributing factor. To achieve social and environmental justice, it is vital to look beyond simple government policies. Individuals must see the ethical inequality of environmental racism and its injustices. Communities of afflicted people are both the subject and object of ethical concern and their futures seems to be tied to the whims of governing bodies that make choices not in “their” favor (ethically, financially, and environmentally). Environmental racism is a key contributing factor to many human and non-human health issues nationwide, and worldwide. In many primarily minority communities, the neighborhoods have become the literal dumping grounds for household garbage, hazardous wastes, and other sources of toxins. Research has shown that people of color are more likely to reside in are...
Environmental racism has been an ongoing issue in the United States. This issue mainly affects communities of color, immigrants, and poor folks who live in urban areas and around public squalors. This creates an unsafe environment for low-income communities and there are hardly any resource to address these environmental destructions. Most poor communities are more than likely to experience pollution than anywhere else because of their social and class status. Due to this, it can determine their breathing and living condition. This builds the connection between race and environmental destruction because of the stigma of space that is attached to low-income areas. Even though environmental racism is more than the unloading of waste in poor areas, this paper focus more on this factor than other elements that correlate with environmental racism. In order to make space for toxic waste, society risks the safety and health of poor communities of color to ensure a capacity for industry to perpetuate environmental racism.
Racism is commonly thought of as an act that is synonymous with violence; however, one common form of racism, environmental racism, often takes place without people being aware the events are happening before detrimental activities have been put into action. In Melissa Checker’s book Polluted Promises, she relates that Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. coined the term environmental racism while stating that there is “deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries” (Checker 14). This problem is important to discuss, as many groups of people around the United States continue to be impacted by these events every day. Such people include
Most Americans conjure imagery of a planet replete with pristine wilderness, crystal blue oceans, fresh air, and verdant forests when they think about the natural environment. In recent decades, this description is becoming increasingly applicable only to certain areas of the United States because poor and minority communities are overwhelmingly subjected to dangerous environmental hazards. As such, the concept of environmental racism has become a major issue affecting every aspect of their lives because of their placement and proximity to environmentally dangerous areas such as landfills, toxic waste sites, and other forms of pollution. The environmental justice movement seeks to remedy this problem by recognizing the direct link between economic, environmental, race, and health issues. The biggest aim of environmental justice is for all people to live, work, and play in clean, and environmentally safe communities. However, in mainstream American environmentalism, poor and minority communities are typically ignored in environmental communication because their white counterparts dominate the discourse. Recent scholarship suggests that people of color play a crucial role in fighting environmental discrimination because their cultural traditions, experiences, and histories allow them to uniquely communicate environmental risk and health concerns within their communities.
I think this wholesale framing of environmental justice issues solely or primarily in terms of distribution is seriously problematic. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights concerning the inextricable interconnections between institutions of human oppression and the domination of the natural ...
Graff points out many young people with street smarts struggle to translate their intelligence into the academic world. He says schools may be at fault for failing to foster street smarts as a viable option to produce quality academic work. Focusing primarily on traditional academic sources, like philosophers, critically acclaimed writers, and historical events, schools overlook topics such as but games, cars, television, or fashion (Graff 245). There seems to be little correlation between traditionally established subjects and the ability to generate thoughtful, in-depth discussion and comprehensive learning. (Graff 245).
In the terms of community investment, Cultural Anthropologist Victor Turner used the term community that emerges during a collective ritual and is characterized by social equality, solidarity, and togetherness (Liburd 1) From this perspective, Turner argues that a connection of commonality, interest and preservation are elements needed to not only increase awareness of environmental issues in efforts to secure protection against toxic agents from entry into the community. I want to argue six points to consider in building the characteristics of a community that is deemed effective in combating against environmental injustice and community disenfranchisement for the people of color. First, a community must incorporate a membership or sense of identity and belonging. In efforts to raise awareness about problems in the community, neighbors need to establish a sense of identity through actions, beliefs and shared common interest in order to bring unison in the community. Second, a community with a common symbol system such as language is often used to conceptualize community. For instance, researchers argue that technical language remains a prerequisite for most deliberative forums, often creating an intimidating and discipline barrier for lay citizens seeking to express their disagreements in the language of everyday life. Speaking the language of science, as well as the jargon of a particular policy community, remains an essential, but often tacit, credential for participation in environmental health decision-making even in the new deliberative forms. (Corburn, 43) Third, a community must have shared values and norms that support, promote and educate the ideology of environmental health issues to educate and empowers community lea...