814.547 (18S) Environmental Justice & Climate Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Commonalities

Sommersemester 2018

Anmeldefrist abgelaufen.

Erster Termin der LV
06.03.2018 15:00 - 16:00 IFF Wien, SR 3b Off Campus
... keine weiteren Termine bekannt

Überblick

Lehrende/r
LV-Titel englisch Environmental Justice & Climate Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Communolities
LV-Art Seminar (prüfungsimmanente LV )
Semesterstunde/n 2.0
ECTS-Anrechnungspunkte 4.0
Anmeldungen 12 (25 max.)
Organisationseinheit
Unterrichtssprache Englisch
LV-Beginn 06.03.2018
eLearning zum Moodle-Kurs

Zeit und Ort

Liste der Termine wird geladen...

LV-Beschreibung

Intendierte Lernergebnisse

Joint seminar with UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (USA) 

Prof. Paul Mohai, School for Environment and Sustainability

This seminar intends to examine commonalities and differences in the perspectives on environmental justice in the U.S. and Europe. In this context, we pay special attention how the climate justice discourse is perceived in these two world regions.

Since the issue of environmental justice has had a longer history in the U.S. the seminar will begin with a brief history of the movement there. We will focus on key events and how “environmental justice” is defined and how U.S. definitions compare with those in Europe and what differences become even more apparent when focusing on the climate justice discourse. 

Lehrmethodik inkl. Einsatz von eLearning-Tools

In this seminar we explore key questions in environmental justice and climate justice with a focus on differences and commonalities between the U.S. and Europe. Students and faculty from the two Universities will meet via teleconferencing (skype, etc.). Students will work in small cross-atlantic working groups to identify differences and commonalities between the U.S. and Europe regarding environmental justice and underlying contextual issues with plenary discussions to synthesise insights.

Inhalt/e

The Environmental Justice movement in the U.S. spans more than three decades. Along with a growing social movement, there has been considerable academic and government interest. Numerous articles and books on the topic have been published crossing many disciplinary fields, including sociology, economics, public health, law, geography, urban planning, political science, social work, and others. In addition to academic interest, government involvement has also grown, including the creation of an Office of Environmental Justice in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, numerous bills introduced in the U.S. Congress, the issuing of a Presidential Executive Order on Environmental Justice, and the declaration of environmental justice policies in every state in the U.S. Recent changes in a polarizing political culture in the U.S. challenge the framing of the environmental  justice debate.

In Europe there is no shortage of environmental movements. However, their concerns are rarely framed as environmental justice issues and there is no social movement around environmental justice as a primary mission. As a focus of academic study and research in Europe, environmental justice topics only recently have gained some momentum. Within the scientific community it became apparent that environmental justice and inequalities in the European context are not rare, but need to be conceptualized differently than in the U.S. This debate is in its infancy and still needs further reviews, structuring and case study inputs. Regarding policies of the European Union and its member states, the issues are mostly framed as access to justice in environmental matters or access to environmental justice. That is, citizens and NGOs can and should play an active role in defending the environment (since “the fish cannot go to court” as an advocate phrased it). These initiatives are a direct consequence of the European Aarhus Convention which regulates “information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters”.

Triggered by the global discourse, we will examine the issue of climate justice and how this discourse presents itself in the U.S. and Europe. One major difference between the environmental justice and the climate justice discourse is the geographical starting point. While environmental justice  is mostly dealing with an injustice on a more local level, climate justice highlights the injustice on a more global level with an  often long-term perspective. 

Literatur

Agyeman, Julian, and Bob Evans. 2004. “‘Just Sustainability’: The Emerging Discourse of Environmental Justice in Britain?” The Geographical Journal 170 (2): 155–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.00117.x.

Agyeman, J. 2002. “Constructing Environmental (in)Justice: Transatlantic Tales.” Environmental Politics 11 (3): 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/714000627.

Deguen, S., and D. Zmirou-Navier. 2010. “Social Inequalities Resulting from Health Risks Related to Ambient Air Quality--A European Review.” The European Journal of Public Health 20 (1): 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckp220.

Elvers, H.-D., M., Gross, and H., Heinrichs, 2008. “The Diversity of Environmental Justice: Towards a European Approach”. European Societies 10 (5): 835–56.

Feagin, J.-R. 2014. “Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations”. Routledge.

Forsyth, Tim. 2014. “Climate Justice Is Not Just Ice.” Geoforum 54 (July): 230–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.12.008.

Hajat, A., C. Hsia, and M.-S. O’Neill. 2015. ‘Socioeconomic Disparities and Air Pollution Exposure: A Global Review’. Current Environmental Health Reports 2 (4): 440–50.

Kuehn, R. 2000. “A Taxonomy of Environmental Justice Issues,” Environmental Law Reporter 30: pp. 10681-703.

Laurent, É. 2011. “Issues in environmental justice within the European Union.” Ecological Economics 70: 1846–1853 28. März

Laurian, L., and R. Funderburg. 2014. ‘Environmental Justice in France? A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Incinerator Location’. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 57 (3): 424–46.

Mohai, Paul, David Pellow, and J. Timmons Roberts. 2009. “Environmental Justice.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 34 (1): 405–30. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-082508-094348.

Padilla, C. M., W. Kihal-Talantikite, V. M. Vieira, P. Rossello, G. Le Nir, D. Zmirou-Navier, and S. Deguen. 2014. ‘Air Quality and Social Deprivation in Four French Metropolitan areas—A Localized Spatio-Temporal Environmental Inequality Analysis’. Environmental Research 134 (October): 315–24.

Schlosberg, David, and Lisette B. Collins. 2014. “From Environmental to Climate Justice: Climate Change and the Discourse of Environmental Justice: Climate Change and the Discourse of Environmental Justice.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 5 (3): 359–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.275.

Rüttenauer, Tobias. 2017. “Neighbours Matter: A Nation-Wide Small-Area Assessment of Environmental Inequality in Germany.” Social Science Research, December. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.11.009.

Link auf weitere Informationen

http://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/paul_mohai

Prüfungsinformationen

Im Fall von online durchgeführten Prüfungen sind die Standards zu beachten, die die technischen Geräte der Studierenden erfüllen müssen, um an diesen Prüfungen teilnehmen zu können.

Prüfungsmethode/n

Reading assignments and tasks: Students will have weekly reading assignments and should provide about 3 questions/comments based on the reading one day prior to the meeting. Questions/comments should be: question of understanding, comments challenging the text(s), observations on commonalities and differences in the perspectives on environmental justice in the U.S. and Europe and/or emerging further interesting questions

Reflection paper: At the end of the course students should provide a reflection paper (about 10 pages). Preferably prepared in groups. Students should select a few observed commonalities and differences between EJ in U.S. and Europe they are interested in the most. By use of the course literature they should argue these commonalities and differences and what explanations they identify in the texts. Finally, they should draw their own conclusions on the selected issues.

Prüfungsinhalt/e

Content: all content provided and discussed during the course

Beurteilungskriterien/-maßstäbe

Participation, comments and questions, reflection paper

Beurteilungsschema

Note Benotungsschema

Position im Curriculum

  • Masterstudium Sozial- und Humanökologie (SKZ: 919, Version: 14W.1)
    • Fach: GWF1 Gesellschaft und Umwelt (Wahlfach)
      • GWF1 Vertiefung ( 0.0h VO, SE, EX, KU, SX / 14.0 ECTS)
        • 814.547 Environmental Justice & Climate Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Commonalities (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Masterstudium Sozial- und Humanökologie (SKZ: 919, Version: 14W.1)
    • Fach: GWF2 Nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung (Wahlfach)
      • GWF2 Vertiefung ( 0.0h VO, SE, EX, KU, SX / 14.0 ECTS)
        • 814.547 Environmental Justice & Climate Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Commonalities (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Masterstudium Sozial- und Humanökologie (SKZ: 919, Version: 14W.1)
    • Fach: GWF8 Geschlechter- und Verteilungsgerechtigkeit im Kontext nachhaltiger Entwicklung, insbesondere Feministische Wissenschaft und Gender Studies (Wahlfach)
      • GWF8 Vertiefung ( 0.0h VO, SE, EX, KU, SX / 14.0 ECTS)
        • 814.547 Environmental Justice & Climate Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Commonalities (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)

Gleichwertige Lehrveranstaltungen im Sinne der Prüfungsantrittszählung

Sommersemester 2020
  • 814.547 SE Environmental and Climate Justice (2.0h / 4.0ECTS)
Sommersemester 2019
  • 814.547 SE Unjust Climate - the unequal burden sharing of human induced climate change (2.0h / 4.0ECTS)
Sommersemester 2017
  • 814.547 SE Environmental Justice in the US and Europe: Understanding Differences and Communalities (2.0h / 4.0ECTS)