“Coal is in our food,coal is in our blood”: everyday environmental injustices of rural community gardening in Central Appalachia

ABSTRACT

Central Appalachia's historical dependence on natural resource extraction industries has contributed to a long history of under- and uneven development, including trends of persistent poverty, cycles of unemployment, weakened local governance, environmental degradation, and severe social inequalities relative to the rest of the nation. Though these trends have been well documented at structural and community-levels, scholarship is more limited in assessing how the conditions of natural resource dependency may shape the everyday experiences of those who live in such regions and how those everyday experiences may illuminate challenges for future development. Employing an embedded case study design, this study examines how everyday environmental injustices may be experienced via community gardening activities, a sustainable development-oriented activity celebrated in urban locations but largely unexplored in rural environments. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 43 gardening programme coordinators and participants, the findings demonstrate that everyday environmental injustices are experienced across four distinct, yet overlapping and mutually reinforcing, dimensions: natural, built, human health, and socioeconomic environments. These factors in turn constrain programme participation and beneficial programme outcomes, particularly for more disadvantaged households that are affected by chronic illness, geographic isolation, and environmental hazards. Although the interviewees viewed many of these challenges as further justification for pursuing grassroots initiatives like community gardening programmes, these constraints also interacted in a way that limited the success of these locally-oriented sustainable development efforts, particularly for individuals who are the most socially, economically, and environmentally marginalised.     

Disparities in the provision of public parks in neighbourhoods with varied Latino composition in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACT

This article examines the provision of public parks in Latino and non-Latino neighbourhoods in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Though previous research has examined the socio-spatial distribution of urban parks, few have analysed both accessibility and variations in park features associated with the Latino composition of neighbourhoods. In this study, geographical information systems were employed to assess the availability and accessibility of neighbourhood parks, and Google Earth was used to audit their natural and built environmental features. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Games-Howell post hoc test was applied to examine the hypothesis that park resources are not equitably distributed across neighbourhoods, and that Latino places are disproportionally affected by a suboptimal provision of park space and services. The analysis points to invariance across neighbourhoods in terms of quantity and features of public parks, so the expected systemic pattern of inequality affecting Latino neighbourhoods in Phoenix Metro was not found. The study suggests, however, some areas wherein cities in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area could act to improve the allocation of public park resources and engage the diversity of local populations.     

Caring for country through participatory art: creating a boundary object for communicating Indigenous knowledge and values

The trend towards the inclusion of diverse groups in environmental decision-making has led to the need to explore new forms of communication to engage communities in expressing their values and aspirations. Participatory art as an emergent methodology was explored with Traditional Owner groups involved in policy development through the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation in northern Queensland, Australia. The works began with a moderated focus group exploring the theme What does caring for country mean to you? Participants then worked collaboratively on one canvas over some six weeks. Individual expressions were discussed with participants during and following their creation. Themes emerging from the focus group and painting workshop included those related to culture, well-being, environment, politics, and holism, which was central to the discussions. The common thread of the work was that people need to interact with country in order to care for country.     

Recycling in Jerusalem: right or privilege?

This study analyses disparities in the provision of environmental services in Jerusalem, specifically through the distribution of recycling bins. The allocation of recycling bins in Jerusalem is uneven. Some neighbourhoods have more than their share of infrastructure, while others do not have any recycling bins at all. The spatial distribution of recycling bins throughout the city is analysed across the ethno-religious and socioeconomic divides, enabling us to determine whether the opportunity to recycle is a right or a privilege. The findings demonstrate that the Arab areas are literally not serviced. Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish neighbourhoods are discriminated against unless socioeconomic levels and population size are controlled. Therefore, waste-management policies reproduce social inequalities resulting in environmental injustice. Due to the fact that recycling in Jerusalem is voluntary and not obligatory, and that in general the public wants to recycle, the opportunity to recycle is indeed a privilege.     

A multi‐level investigation of psychological contract breach and organizational identification through the lens of perceived organizational membership: Testing a moderated–mediated model

Drawing on the perceived organizational membership theoretical framework and the social identity view of dissonance theory, I examined in this study the dynamics of the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. I included group‐level transformational and transactional leadership as well as procedural justice in the hypothesized model as key antecedents for organizational membership processes. I further explored the mediating role of psychological contract breach in the relationship between leadership, procedural justice climate, and organizational identification and proposed separateness–connectedness self‐schema as an important moderator of the above mediated relationship. Hierarchical linear modeling results from a sample of 864 employees from 162 work units in 10 Greek organizations indicated that employees' perception of psychological contract breach negatively affected their organizational identification. I also found psychological contract breach to mediate the impact of transformational and transactional leadership on organizational identification. Results further provided support for moderated mediation and showed that the indirect effects of transformational and transactional leadership on identification through psychological contract breach were stronger for employees with a low connectedness self‐schema. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Governance of seed and food security through participatory plant breeding: Empirical evidence and gender analysis from Syria

This paper presents the findings of a study on the governance of seed conducted in the framework of a participatory plant breeding (PPB) programme, based on a multi‐year inquiry with a panel of ten Syrian households. The study assessed the interactions between governance regimes regulating the rights to access and control genetic resources at international and national level, compared to the actual ability of the respondent women farmers to access and control the seed of varieties they co‐developed with the PPB programme. The paper argues that gender equal access to seed can “optimally” contribute to enhancing household food security in small scale farming. The paper also argues that to support a gender‐equal access to seed in the respondent households legislation needs to explicitly protect the rights of women farmers to access and share the benefits of genetic material and draw from empirical evidence of the actual access to and control of seed at ground level.     

低山丘陵区农业景观格局对害虫-捕食性天敌食物网的影响

农业集约化导致景观破碎化、均质化程度加深.景观斑块的组成及合理布局带来的农业景观高异质性是维持区域生物多样性的关键.该文选择具有典型低山丘陵地貌的辽宁省建平县为研究区,在食物网水平上探究区域农业景观格局对生物多样性的影响.选取20个样区,在明晰区域景观特征、分析害虫-捕食性天敌食物网结构的基础上,采用回归分析和最优模型...     

Debating ecological justice: implications for critical environmental education

This article will briefly discuss the implications of recognition of ecological justice in relation to environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD). It is argued that the present conception of environment taught through EE and ESD negates the subjectivity of non-human species and ignores the ethical imperatives of ecological justice. Evocating environmental ethics, major directions integrating ecological justice into EE and ESD are proposed.     

建设生态农业促进无公害农产品生产

本文从生态环境的概念入手分析了人和生态环境的关系、生态农业建设的作用、无公害农产品生产与生态农业建设的关系，指出了无公害农产品生产中存在的问题，提出了加快建设生态农业、生产无公害农产品、提升江苏农业竞争力的建议。     

浅谈东胜地区餐饮业污染的成因及解决措施

阐述东胜地区存在的污染及目前东胜区采取的措施和本人的几点看法。