Environmental Justice: Theoretical Approaches
NRE 482 / Environ 482 / CAAS 482
Credits: 3

This course should be of interest to students wanting to understand and study issues related to the environment, inquality, and social change. It examines theoretical approaches that are either currently being used or could be applicable to environmental justice research. Students will study several theories including: race relations theories, power elite theory, social movement theories - relative deprivation, rational choice, political opportunity, resource mobilization, micro-structural recruitment, identity theories - and organizational theory. The course provides students interested in environmental justice research, advocacy, policymaking, or community organizing an opportunity to see how the aforementioned theoretical frameworks can help them understand environmental justice cases that arise. The course will help students organize information they glean from observations of community groups contending with environmental justice issues, from reading case studies, or from working in the environmental field. A sound understanding of these theoretical approaches will enhance the students understanding of how and why communities organize around environmental justice issues, why some people participate and not others, why some communities succeed and not others, why the environmental justice discourse differs from the mainstream environmental discourse, and how movements are maintained.