School building condition,school attendance,and academic achievement in New York City public schools: A mediation model

Little is known about how the condition of school facilities affects academic outcomes. This study examines the role of school attendance as a mediator in the relationship between facilities in disrepair and student grades in city and state tests. Data on building condition and results from English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics (Math) standardized tests were analyzed using a sample of 95 elementary schools in New York City. Variables relevant to academic achievement such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, teacher quality, and school size were used as covariates. In run-down school facilities students attended less days on average and therefore had lower grades in ELA and Math standardized tests. Attendance was found to be a full mediator for grades in ELA and a partial mediator for grades in Math. This study provides empirical evidence of the effects of building quality on academic outcomes and considers the social justice issues related to this phenomenon.     

民事司法改革进程中环境纠纷行政处理问题探析

民事司法手段的局限性限制了司法手段在环境纠纷解决中的地位和作用。民事司法改革进程的深入发展和多元化纠纷解决机制的兴盛为环境纠纷的多元化解决途径带来了新的发展契机。环境纠纷行政处理的专业性、便捷性、可接近性决定了行政处理在环境纠纷解决中的独特作用和适用空间。在借鉴发达国家和地区环境纠纷行政处理的立法经验和灵活多样的纠纷解决途径的基础上,从环境纠纷行政处理专门立法、纠纷解决机构设置、纠纷解决方式、行政处理的纠纷范围、行政处理救济的程序保障等方面,提出完善我国环境纠纷行政处理制度的思考和建议。     

Sustainable solid waste management in sub-Saharan African cities: application of system thinking and system dynamic as methodological imperatives in Kinshasa,the Democratic Republic of Congo

This paper is based on a review of the methodological approaches associated with solid waste management (SWM) in the context of sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities. Using Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a case study, the paper proposes a new way of looking at solid waste in the bid to come up with alternative methods to improve the plight of SWM. A combination of qualitative research methods and system analysis have been employed to evaluate the causal relationships observed in contemporary SWM systems in Kinshasa. This paper argues that there is an absence of coherent and broad-based approaches to SWM in Kinshasa as is common in other SSA countries. Empirical evidence suggests that contemporary SWM strategies and approaches developed on a global scale which have increasingly been adopted by the Congolese national and local government authorities have proven inadequate to address the SWM realities on a local level. Using system thinking and system dynamics, this paper attempts to develop a feasible methodological framework focusing on the formulation of an appropriate approach to improve SWM in Kinshasa. It is argued that new ways of approaching the complexity that exists in SWM will facilitate the adoption of technologies and innovative ways of thinking and managing solid waste in a more sustainable, socially, and environmentally accepted manner.     

Sharing conservation burdens fairly

We examined how, from the point of view of justice, the burdens of paying for conservation should be shared. I resisted simple answers to the question of who should pay for conservation that lean on a single moral principle. I identified 3 relevant principles that relate to who causes conservation challenges, who has greater capacity to carry burdens, and who stands to benefit from conservation. I argue for a distinctive pluralist framework for allocating conservation burdens that grants a proper role to all 3 principles. A multistep process can be used to put the framework into practice. First, identify cases in which conservation is necessary. Second, consider whether people knew or could have been expected to anticipate the consequences of their activities and whether they had reasonable alternatives to acting the way they did. Third, turn to facts about benefits; when no culprit for conservation challenges can be found, ask who benefits from acts of conservation. In the second and third stages, consideration must also be given to ability to pay.     

Environmental justice meets the right to stay put: mobilising against environmental racism,gentrification, and xenophobia in Chicago's Little Village

After decades of fighting for clean air and green space in the face of environmental racism and urban disinvestment, Chicago's Latinx Little Village neighbourhood has begun to see environmental improvements take place. Activists are wary of the potential for gentrification in the wake of clean up, and are advocating for the right to stay put in the community they have worked so hard to improve. These ongoing contestations have recently intersected with accelerating racialized state violence as renewed anti-immigrant and white supremacist rhetoric, policies, and actions have targeted Latinx communities. In this paper we ask, how do struggles against environmental racism, gentrification, and xenophobia interlock, and how does the framework of environmental justice serve to enable activism across all three sites? For racialized minority communities, repeated experiences of forced migration and displacement often mean that an anti-displacement ethos is particularly well-articulated and grounded in collective historical memory. Drawing on an extensive analysis of media materials complemented by archival research, fieldwork, and interviews with community organisers, this paper argues that tight linkages between environmental justice and anti-displacement principles inform community responses to multiple forms of structural racialized violence.     

Sleepwalking into lock-in? Avoiding wrongs to future people in the governance of solar radiation management research

ABSTRACT

Arguments are advanced for two ways in which we can avoid the reckless endangerment of future people in the governance of solar radiation management (SRM) research, which could happen through lock-in to SRM deployment from research. SRM research is at an early stage, one at which the mechanisms of lock-in could start to operate. However, lock-in fit to endanger future people could be slowed or stopped through targeted governance. Governance of SRM research that does not include provisions to detect, slow, or stop lock-in fails the test of an intergenerationally adequate precautionary principle, and research governed without these provisions cannot itself be justified as a precaution against the impacts of climate change.     

Interactional justice,leader–member exchange,and employee performance: Examining the moderating role of justice differentiation

Past research suggests that interactional justice plays a pivotal role in facilitating high‐quality leader–member exchange (LMX), with downstream implications for employee performance. However, the broader context in which these effects unfold has received scarce attention. Drawing from deontic justice and social exchange theories, we suggest that interactional justice differentiation is an important contextual moderator of the link between interactional justice and LMX. Specifically, we argue that high interactional justice differentiation attenuates the link between interactional justice and LMX, in turn influencing the effects of interactional justice on employee task and creative performance. Results from two studies employing both experimental and multisource, multilevel survey designs provide convergent support for the hypothesized model. We conclude by highlighting several key theoretical and practical implications of our findings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

环境正义研究前沿及其启示

环境正义不仅是重大的现实问题,也是不同学科和领域研究的焦点。通过对国内环境正义研究文献的梳理,比较分析环境正义所涉学科、内容和方法后发现：环境正义研究呈现出多学科视角、多元化主题和学科交叉趋势,但研究体系不够完善,缺乏理论创新;亟待构建中国特色环境正义理论体系和分析框架,总结中国环境正义研究案例和解决模式;环境正义概念多而不统一,混杂而不明确,需进一步厘清和辨明;考虑多维内涵、多重维度和多维原则,建构和完善环境正义概念体系;环境正义问题主要表现在多尺度区域和多类型群体两个层面,环境强势群体（区域）与弱势群体（区域）的环境权责不对等是焦点;城乡环境正义问题广受关注,需加强经济弱势地区和环境弱势地区环境正义研究;解决环境正义问题的政策措施缺乏系统性考量和可操作性,在具体的社会文化和地方情境中探讨环境正义及其解决之道是重点;按照问题的轻重缓急,分区域分群体逐步消除环境不正义;环境正义评价标准欠缺,不同学科数据和方法交叉融合不足。未来环境正义研究的重点和难点在于：建构一个问题导向的、跨学科交叉的环境正义理论框架;精确表征和测度环境（不）正义;模拟多尺度、多主体的环境正义演变过程;基于地方性加强环境正义的典型案例研究。     

Of firms and farms: agricultural ethics and the problem of compensation

Compensating farmers out of public funds for financiallosses due to adverse weather conditions and animaldiseases is fairly common in most Western countries.This government policy differs from that towardsentrepeneurs in other economic branches. Whatjustifies this differential treatment? In the firstpart of this article, three theories of justice arepresented that offer a general framework for dealingwith problems of compensatory justice. In the secondpart, the possibilities of justifiying differentialtreatment of agriculture within each of these theoriesare explored. It is concluded that compensatorypractices in agriculture require fundamentalrethinking in view of the changing technological,economic, and cultural conditions of agriculture.     

Environmental equity and the distribution of toxic release inventory and other environmentally undesirable sites in metropolitan New York City

We study the question of environmental equity via generalized linear modeling for the metropolitan New York City region and ask whether, after accounting for socioeconomic status, particular racial/ethnic populations bear a disproportionate burden of hosting environmentally undesirable sites. Our data consist of population demographics for 2216 census tracts linked to 354 environmentally undesirable facilities, including toxic release inventory sites, hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities, and other common urban problem sites such as landfills, incinerators, bus garages and sewage treatment plants. Using generalized linear and additive modeling techniques, we find that racial/ethnic demographics, in particular the Hispanic percentage of a tract's population, are significantly associated with the presence of potentially environmentally adverse sites. This leads us to the conclusion that, over the whole metropolitan New York City area, the Hispanic population is proximate to more sites than other populations. At the same time, we find that both Hispanics and African-Americans are more proximate to these sites in the Bronx and Queens. However, we also find indications that Hispanics and African-Americans are less likely to be proximate to the sites in Manhattan. We establish an empirical relationship that warrants additional study in order to establish the causes for the population distribution and whether a basis for a claim of discrimination exists.