SOCY334601: Environmental Justice
Spring 2016 Syllabus
Monday and Wednesday 10:30 – 11:45
415 McGuinn Hall, Boston College
Instructor: Monique Ouimette
Department of Sociology
410B McGuinn Hall, Boston College
monique.ouimette@bc.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays 2-4pm and by appointment
This course examines challenges and controversies associated with the unequal distribution of
environmental hazards across communities. Students will explore the social, industrial, and government
forces that create inequitable burdens of environmental pollution as well as movements to reduce such
burdens. While a majority of the course focuses on the United States, readings include cases from
around the world. Students are expected to actively contribute to class discussions and to complete a
pilot research project on the environmental justice implications of an area of everyday consumption
such as food, clothing, cleaning, transportation, or technology.
The format of this course is primarily seminar with a lecture component. What this means is that I will
present a short lecture during each class meeting and the rest of the time will be devoted to discussions
and occasional in-class exercises. I hope that the design will foster a collaborative, collegial environment
and active learning.
This course is an elective and does not count toward either the social science core or cultural diversity
course requirements.
Course Objectives
Through participation in the course, students will:
 Develop a general understanding of environmental justice and be able to identify factors that
contribute to the existence of disparities in environmental outcomes.
 Learn about a variety of approaches to analyzing environmental justice from sociological
perspectives.
 Explore an aspect of environmental justice in-depth through a semester-long research project.
Course Norms
 Complete readings before class and be prepared to participate in class discussions.
 Attend all classes. Email instructor prior to any absence from class. Be prepared to provide
documentation for any absences.
 Computers and tablets may be used only for class purposes. No mobile phones are allowed to
be used during class.
 Submit assignments on time. Contact the instructor in advance if you think that you might have
trouble completing an assignment on time.
 Discussion norms: Be respectful of others, monitor your air time, and ask clarifying questions.
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Grading and Assignments
Percent of Grade
Due Date
Class participation
Environmental Justice news item presentation
Discussion co-leader
15%
5%
10%
Ongoing
Varies
Varies
First in-class exam
Second in-class exam
Semester research project
- Research Proposal
- Annotated outline of paper
- Complete paper (10-15 pages)
- Presentation
15%
15%
40%
March 2
April 27
- February 24
- March 23
- May 2
- May 4, 9, or 12
Grades will be assigned as follows:
A (94-100); A- (90-93); B+ (87-89); B (84-86); B- (80-83)
C+ (77-79); C (74-76); C- (70-73); D+ (67-69); D (64-66); D- (60-63); F (0-59)
The following is a brief description of each grading component. More details will be provided in class.
Class participation (15%): Students are expected to attend all classes, to keep up with the readings for
each class, and to actively engage in discussions. Readings listed next to the date of each class meeting
should be read before that class meeting. Engaging in group discussion is an important element of the
learning process for this course. By 7am on each class day, students are required to post at least one
clarifying or discussion question based on the readings to the Canvas course site.
Environmental Justice news (5%): Each student will find an environmental justice-related news article
and present it to class once during the semester.
Discussion co-leader (10%): Students will be paired into teams of two. Each team will co-lead a
discussion based on the day’s readings once during the semester.
Two in-class exams (30%): The in-class exams will be based on the readings and class discussions. Each
will include a few short-answer identifications and an essay.
Semester research project (40%): The semester project is an opportunity for students to explore an
environmental justice-related topic of their own choosing. All students will receive instructor feedback
on their projects through their research proposals and annotated outlines. Students are also welcome to
consult with the instructor about their projects throughout the semester. The final paper should be
approximately 10-15 pages. Each student will have the opportunity to share his/her project with the
class during conference-style presentations at the end of the semester.
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Academic Integrity
All work that you submit must be your own. When quoting or paraphrasing another author’s idea in
your work, always cite the author and the source in which you found the idea. Here is the address for
the library guide on how and when to appropriately cite work: http://libguides.bc.edu/citation/citationwhen . If you plagiarize another person’s work or if you submit another person’s work as your own, you
will receive a failing grade for the assignment and may be reported to your respective academic dean.
Boston College’s policy on Academic Integrity is posted on the following webpage:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/academic/univcat/undergrad_catalog/policies_procedures.html#inte
grity .
Accommodations
If you need accommodations for a documented learning disability, please contact Kathy Duggan at the
Connors Family Learning Center (617-552-8093 or dugganka@bc.edu ). If you need accommodations for
another type of disability, please contact Paulette Durrett in the Disability Services Office (617-552-3470
or paulette.durrett@bc.edu ).
Texts
Required Book: David Naguib Pellow (2002). Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in
Chicago. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
All readings are available through course reserves. All articles are also available through the Boston
College library electronic databases.
If you need financial assistance to purchase books, contact Montserrat Coalition
Montserrat.coalition@bc.edu .
Reading and Assignment Schedule
Readings listed next to the date should be read before attending class that day.
Wednesday
January 20
Readings and Assignments
Introductions and review of syllabus
In-class short writing prompt
Monday
January 25
David Pellow and Robert J. Brulle (2007). Poisoning the Planet: The Struggle for
Environmental Justice. Contexts 6(1) 37-41.
Robert J. Brulle and David Naguib Pellow (2006). “Environmental Justice: Human
Health and Environmental Inequalities. Annual Review of Public Health 27: 103-124.
Robert D. Bullard (1994) Chapter 1:Environmental Justice for All (p.3-22 plus notes
321-325)
and
Ken Geiser and Gerry Waneck (1994) Chapter 3: PCBs and Warren County (p.43-52
plus notes 325-327) in Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities
of Color Ed. Robert D. Bullard. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
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Wednesday
January 27
Readings and Assignments
Robert D. Bullard (2001). Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental
Justice Movement (p.97-105) in The Environment and Society Reader edited by R.
Scott Frey. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Beverly H. Wright, Pat Bryant, and Robert D. Bullard (1994). Coping with Poisons in
Cancer Alley (p.110-129 plus notes 335-337) in Unequal Protection: Environmental
Justice and Communities of Color Ed. Robert D. Bullard. San Francisco: Sierra Club
Books.
Linda S. Birnbaum and Paul Jung (2011). From Endocrine Disruptors to
Nanomaterials: Advancing our Understanding of Environmental Health to Protect
Public Health. Health Affairs 30(5): 814-822.
Rachel Morello-Frosch, Miriam Zuk, Michael Jerrett, Bhavna Shamasunder, and Amy
D. Kyle (2011). Understanding the Cumulative Impacts of Inequalities In
Environmental Health: Implications for Policy. Health Affairs 30(5): 879-887.
Monday
February 1
Andrew Szasz (1994) Chapter 2: Routine Regulatory Failure: The Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (p.11-37)
and
Chapter 3: “Toxic Waste” as Icon: A New Mass Issue is Born (p.38-68) plus notes
p.167-176 in. EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental
Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Luke W. Cole & Sheila R. Foster (2001). Preface: We Speak for Ourselves: The
Struggle of Kettleman City (p.1-9) in From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and
the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University
Press.
Wednesday
February 3
Dorceta E. Taylor (2000). “The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm: Injustice
Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses.” American
Behavioral Scientist 43(4): 508-580.
Monday
February 8
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in David Naguib Pellow (2002). Garbage Wars: The Struggle for
Environmental Justice in Chicago. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press .
Wednesday
February 10
Monday
February 15
Wednesday
February 17
Garbage Wars – Chapters 4 and 5
Monday
February 22
Garbage Wars – Chapters 6 and 7
R. Scott Frey (2001). The Hazardous Waste Stream in the World-System (p.106-120)
in The Environment and Society Reader edited by R. Scott Frey. Needham Heights,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.
David N. Pellow (2007). Chapter 6: “Electronic Waste: The “Clean Industry” Exports
Its Trash” (p.185-224 plus notes 285-290) in Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational
Movements for Environmental Justice. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press .
Thomas E. Shriver and Gary R. Webb (2009). Rethinking the Scope of
Environmental Injustice: Perceptions of Health Hazards in a Rural Native American
Community Exposed to Carbon Black. Rural Sociology 74(2): 270–292.
Javier Auyero and Debora Swistun (2008). The Social Production of Toxic
Uncertainty. American Sociological Review, 73(3): 357-379.
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Wednesday
February 24
Readings and Assignments
Devra Lee Davis (2002). Chapter 5: Zones of Incomprehension (p.125-158 plus notes
291-294) in When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the
Battle Against Pollution. New York, NY: Basic Books.
William R. Freudenburg, Robert Gramling, and Debra J. Davidson (2008). Scientific
Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs): Science and the Politics of Doubt.
Sociological Inquiry 78(1) 2–38.
Research proposal due
Monday
February 29
Daniel R Faber and Eric J. Krieg (2002). "Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards:
Environmental Injustices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Environmental
Health Perspectives 110: supplement 2: 277-288.
Penn Loh and Jodi Sugerman-Brozan (2002). Environmental Justice Organization for
Environmental Health: Case Study on Asthma and Diesel Exhaust in Roxbury,
Massachusetts. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 584:
110-124.
Eric Krieg (1998). “The Two Faces of Toxic Waste: Trends in the Spread of
Environmental Hazards.” Sociological Forum 13: 3-20.
Wednesday
March 2
Monday
March 7
Wednesday
March 9
Monday
March 14
Exam 1
Spring Break – no class
Spring Break – no class
Laura Pulido and Devon Peña (1998). Environmentalism and Positionality: The Early
Pesticide Campaign of the United Farm Workers' Organizing Committee, 1965-71.
Race, Gender & Class 6(1) (Part II): Environmentalism and Race, Gender, Class
Issues: 33-50.
T.A. Arcury, S.A. Quandt, and G.B. Russell (2002). Pesticide safety among
farmworkers: Perceived risk and perceived control as factors reflecting environmental
justice. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 Apr, Vol.110 Suppl 2, 233-240.
Wednesday
March 16
M.G. Ribeiro, C.G. Colasso, P.P. Monteiro, Wr. Pedreira, and M. Yonamine (2012).
Occupational safety and health practices among flower greenhouses workers from
Alto Tiete region (Brazil). Science Of The Total Environment, Feb 1, Vol.416, 121126.
Jill Harrison (2008). Abandoned Bodies and Spaces of Sacrifice: Pesticide Drift
Activism and the Contestation of Neoliberal Environmental Politics in California.
Geoforum 3: 1197-1214.
Jill Lindsey Harrison, (2014). Neoliberal Environmental Justice: Mainstream Ideas of
Justice in Political Conflict over Agricultural Pesticides in the United States.
Environmental Politics, 2014, 23(4): 650-669.
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Monday
March 21
Readings and Assignments
Joshua Sbicca (2012). Growing Food Justice by Planting an Anti-Oppression
Foundation: Opportunities and Obstacles for a Budding Social Movement. Agriculture
and Human Values 29(4): 455-466.
Alison Hope Alkon (2011). Resisting Environmental Injustice Through Sustainable
Agriculture: Examples from Latin America and Their Implications for U.S. Food
Politics (p.185–212) In Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders: Local
Perspectives on Global Injustices, edited by JoAnn Carmin and Julian Agyeman.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wednesday
March 23
Heather Goodall. (2006) Chapter 5: Indigenous Peoples, Colonialism, and Memories
of Environmental Injustice (p.73-95) in Echoes from the Poisoned Well: Global
Memories of Environmental Injustice, edited by Sylvia Hood Washington, Heather
Goodall, and Paul C Rosier. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Brett Clark (2002). The Indigenous Environmental Movement in the United States Transcending Borders in Struggles Against Mining, Manufacturing, and the Capitalist
State. Organization & Environment 15(4): 410-442.
Dan Frosch (2014). "Nestled Amid Toxic Waste, a Navajo Village Faces Losing its
Land Forever." New York Times 20 Feb. 2014: A10(L).
Annotated outline due
Monday
March 28
Wednesday
March 30
Easter Break – no class
Monday
April 4
Daniel Faber (2008). Chapter 1: Not all People are Polluted Equal: The Environmental
Injustices of American Capitalism (p.15-65) in Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice:
The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc.
Jason W. Moore (2003). “The Modern World-System” as Environmental History?
Ecology and the Rise of Capitalism. Theory and Society 32(3): 307-377.
Douglas S. Noonan (2015) Chapter 4: Assessing the EPA’s Experience with Equity in
Standard Setting (p.85-116) in Failed Promises: Evaluating the Federal Government's
Response to Environmental Justice, edited by David M. Konisky. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Wednesday
April 6
Stephen J. Scanlan (2011). Chapter 1: The Theoretical Roots and Sociology of
Environmental Justice in Appalachia, (p.3-31). In Mountains of Injustice: Social and
Environmental Justice in Appalachia, edited by Michele Morrone and Geoffrey L.
Buckley. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Steve Lerner (2010). Introduction (p.1-15 plus notes p315-316)
and
Chapter 5: Addyston, Ohio: The Plastics Plant Next Door (p.119-154 plus notes
p.323-324) in Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the
United States. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Monday
April 11
Readings and Assignments
Christine A. Bevc , Brent K. Marshall and J. Steven Picou (2006) Environmental
Justice and Toxic Exposure: Toward A Spatial Model of Physical Health and
Psychological Well-Being. Social Science Research 36:1 48-67.
Robin Saha and Paul Mohai (2005). “Historical Context and Hazardous Waste Facility
Siting: Understanding Temporal Patterns in Michigan.” Social Problems 52:618-648.
Wednesday
April 13
Tammy L. Lewis (2011). Global Civil Society and the Distribution of Environmental
Goods: Funding for Environmental NGOs in Ecuador (p.87–104) in Environmental
Inequalities Beyond Borders: Local Perspectives on Global Injustices, edited by
JoAnn Carmin and Julian Agyeman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gordon McGranahan and David Satterthwaite (2002). The Environmental Dimensions
of Sustainable Development for Cities, Geography 87(3): 213-226.
Monday
April 18
Wednesday
April 20
Patriot’s Day – no class
Margarita V. Alario and William R. Freudenburg (2010). Environmental Risks and
Environmental Justice, Or How Titanic Risks Are Not So Titanic After All. Sociological
Inquiry 80(3): 500-512.
J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks (2007). Chapter 3: Not the Day After
Tomorrow: Learning from Recent Climate Disasters (p.67-101 plus notes 273-278) in
A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Monday
April 25
Kari Marie Norgaard (2006). ‘We Don‘t Really Want to Know‘ Environmental Justice
and Socially Organized Denial of Global Warming in Norway. Organization and
Environment 19(3): 347-70.
James Boyce and Manuel Pastor (2013). Clearing the Air: Incorporating Air Quality
and Environmental Justice into Climate Policy. Climatic Change, 120(4): 801-814.
Wednesday
April 27
Monday
May 2
Exam 2
Julian Agyeman (2008) Toward a ‘Just’ Sustainability? Continuum 22(6): 751-756.
Research paper due at the beginning of class
Wednesday
May 4
Monday
May 9
Thursday
May 12
Presentations
Presentations
Presentations
During Final Exam Block: 12:30 – 2:30pm
Please note: The instructor reserves the option to modify the syllabus with ample written and verbal
notice to students.
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