Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: environmental justice
- Creators: Chhetri, Nalini
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Status: Published
Description
Mexico City has an ongoing air pollution issue that negatively affects its citizens and surroundings with current structural disconnections preventing the city from improving its overall air quality. Thematic methodological analysis reveals current obstacles and barriers, as well as variables contributing to this persistent problem. A historical background reveals current programs and policies implemented to improve Mexico’s City air quality. Mexico City’s current systems, infrastructure, and policies are inadequate and ineffective. There is a lack of appropriate regulation on other modes of transportation, and the current government system fails to identify how the class disparity in the city and lack of adequate education are contributing to this ongoing problem. Education and adequate public awareness can potentially aid the fight against air pollution in the Metropolitan City.
ContributorsGarcia, Lucero (Author) / Duarte, Marisa E. (Thesis advisor) / Arzubiaga, Angela (Committee member) / Richter, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This dissertation examines cultural representations that attend to the environmental and socio-economic dynamics of contemporary water crises. It focuses on a growing, transnational body of “hydronarratives” – work by writers, filmmakers, and artists in the United States, Canada, and the postcolonial Global South that stress the historical centrality of water to capitalism. These hydronarratives reveal the uneven impacts of droughts, floods, water contamination, and sea level rise on communities marginalized along lines of race, class, and ethnicity. In doing so, they challenge narratives of “progress” conventionally associated with colonial, imperialist, and neoliberal forms of capitalism dependent on the large-scale extraction of natural resources.
Until recently, there has been little attention paid to the ways in which literary texts and other cultural productions explore the social and ecological dimensions of water resource systems. In its examination of water, this dissertation is methodologically informed by the interdisciplinary field of the energy humanities, which explores oil and other fossil fuels as cultural objects. The hydronarratives examined in this dissertation view water as a cultural object and its extraction and manipulation, as cultural practices. In doing so, they demonstrate the ways in which power, production, and human-induced environmental change intersect to create social and environmental sacrifice zones.
This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary environmental humanities approach, drawing on fields such as indigenous studies, political ecology, energy studies, cultural geography, and economic theory. It seeks to establish a productive convergence between environmental justice studies and what might be termed “Anthropocene studies.” Dominant narratives of the Anthropocene tend to describe the human species as a universalized, undifferentiated whole broadly responsible for the global environmental crisis. However, the hydronarratives examined in this dissertation “decolonize” this narrative by accounting for the ways in which colonialism, capitalism, and other exploitative social systems render certain communities more vulnerable to environmental catastrophe than others.
By attending to these issues through problem water, this dissertation has significant implications for future research in contemporary, transnational American and postcolonial literary studies, the environmental humanities, and the energy humanities. It demonstrates the potential for a focus on representations of resources in literary texts and other cultural productions to better grasp the inequitable distribution of environmental risk, and instances of resilience on a rapidly changing planet.
Until recently, there has been little attention paid to the ways in which literary texts and other cultural productions explore the social and ecological dimensions of water resource systems. In its examination of water, this dissertation is methodologically informed by the interdisciplinary field of the energy humanities, which explores oil and other fossil fuels as cultural objects. The hydronarratives examined in this dissertation view water as a cultural object and its extraction and manipulation, as cultural practices. In doing so, they demonstrate the ways in which power, production, and human-induced environmental change intersect to create social and environmental sacrifice zones.
This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary environmental humanities approach, drawing on fields such as indigenous studies, political ecology, energy studies, cultural geography, and economic theory. It seeks to establish a productive convergence between environmental justice studies and what might be termed “Anthropocene studies.” Dominant narratives of the Anthropocene tend to describe the human species as a universalized, undifferentiated whole broadly responsible for the global environmental crisis. However, the hydronarratives examined in this dissertation “decolonize” this narrative by accounting for the ways in which colonialism, capitalism, and other exploitative social systems render certain communities more vulnerable to environmental catastrophe than others.
By attending to these issues through problem water, this dissertation has significant implications for future research in contemporary, transnational American and postcolonial literary studies, the environmental humanities, and the energy humanities. It demonstrates the potential for a focus on representations of resources in literary texts and other cultural productions to better grasp the inequitable distribution of environmental risk, and instances of resilience on a rapidly changing planet.
ContributorsHenry, Matthew S. (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis advisor) / Sadowski-Smith, Claudia (Thesis advisor) / Broglio, Ronald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The governance of natural resources often gets implicitly or explicitly shaped by the knowledge systems that are invoked for making decisions. These knowledge systems reflect the underlying notions of how human-nature relationships are conceived and operationalized by different stakeholders in the governance system. Conflicts in the science-policy interface in environmental governance arise when specific conceptions of nature dominate over other ways of knowing, when stakeholders with representing different knowledge systems have disproportionate degrees of influence in policymaking spaces, or when certain stakeholders are deracinated from their resources and long-held knowledge traditions. This dissertation examines the epistemic conflicts that exist in the Indian forestry that have led to a situation of policy stalemate in the governance system and continue to perpetuate colonial systems of scientific forestry and marginalize local knowledge traditions. To do so, this dissertation analyzes three datasets to understand the extent and consequences of this conflict in the forestry sciences in Indian academia. First, scientific discourses on the Indian Forest Rights Act are examined to understand the normative and epistemic practices that lead to differences in perspectives and scientific positions on forest governance. Second, the forest policy literature is analyzed using bibliometrics techniques to identify the intellectual and social silos in forestry sciences in India. Third, interview data from Indian forest scientists is analyzed to understand the inequalities within the science-policy interface in Indian forestry and how these perpetuate colonial legacies of forestry science. This dissertation concludes with recommendations and future pathways for knowledge integration and policy deliberations to make more decolonial, inclusive, and sustainable policies in Indian forestry.
ContributorsBisht, Vanya (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Thesis advisor) / Fisher, Erik (Thesis advisor) / Berbés-Blázquez, Marta (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Sustainable communities discourse, literature and initiatives have essentially excluded poor marginalized communities at a time when sustainability efforts require more stakeholders and stakeholder involvement. The families in poor marginalized communities of color in the United States are struggling to meet basic needs (food, medicine, shelter, safety). Additionally, in these communities there is a disproportionate level of forced mobility to prisons, jails and detention centers. These communities are unsustainable. This dissertation is comprised of three articles. I present in the first article (published in Sustainability Journal) an argument for a definition of sustainability that includes recognition of the major, complex and persistent problems faced daily by poor marginalized communities of color (African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American) including those connected to mass incarceration and high recidivism. I also propose a system-of-communities conceptual framework. In my second article, I explore sustainability assessment tools and find them to be inadequate for measuring the progress toward sustainability of poor marginalized communities with high incarceration and recidivism rates. In order to fill this gap, I developed the Building Sustainable Communities Framework and a Social Reintegration, Inclusion, Cohesion, Equity (Social R.I.C.E.) Transition Tool, a qualitative interview guide (a precursor to the development of a community sustainability assessment tool). In the third article, I test the utility of the Building Sustainable Communities Framework and Social R.I.C.E. Transition Tool through a community-based participatory action study: The Building Sustainable Communities-Repairing the Harm of Incarceration Pilot Project. Three types of participants were included, formerly incarcerated, family members of formerly incarcerated and community members. The Restorative Justice Circle process (based on a traditional practice of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples) was also introduced to the groups for the purpose of having discussions and sharing personal stories in a safe, nonthreatening, confidential and equitable space. During the study, data was gathered for reflexive thematic analysis from two participant groups, in-depth interviews, focus groups and short qualitative surveys. The findings reflect the community is in dire need of a path to stability and sustainability and needs the knowledge and tools to help them make collective community decisions about present and future sustainability issues.
ContributorsAdams, Muriel (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Thesis advisor) / Klinsky, Sonja (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Pranis, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Widespread human rights abuses have been documented in global fisheries, prompting governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses to reconsider human rights as a key tenet of seafood sustainability. New and existing approaches are aiming to integrate human and labor rights into sustainability initiatives. These efforts encompass the development of new tools for conducting human rights due diligence and the modification of market-based approaches like third-party certifications, fishery improvement projects, and buyer sourcing commitments to include criteria for social responsibility. It is critical to evaluate these approaches to better understand their efficacy and areas in need of improvement. This dissertation explores how approaches for seafood sustainability are being adapted to protect and respect human rights of fishers and fishworkers. First, I examine the efficacy of a recognized human rights risk assessment tool: the Social Responsibility Assessment Tool for the Seafood Sector (SRA). Through a preliminary assessment of human rights risk in Guyana’s artisanal fishery, I determined that the SRA is an effective approach to identify visible and potential risk, though it must be supplemented with engagement with fishers and fishworkers through interviews. Next, I evaluated labor conditions in the shrimp and groundfish fishery of the Guianas-Brazil Shelf using a novel evaluative framework for decent work. I uncovered cross-jurisdictional challenges including trafficking and limited worker representation. My evaluative framework enabled a holistic analysis of decent work, identifying linked concerns such as widespread illegal fishing and threats to food security. Finally, I conducted an analysis of market-based approaches that include criteria for social responsibility. Interviews with experts highlight that market-based approaches, particularly fishery improvement projects, hold great potential as strategies to improve human rights in fisheries. However, concerns around market-based approaches include a lack of strong enforcement mechanisms, limited worker representation, and the voluntary nature of initiatives hinder effective change on the ground. Overall, my research suggests that efforts to improve human rights in fisheries are nascent and need further development. By encouraging mandatory due diligence, improved worker representation, and stricter accountability, interventions can more effectively address risks and ensure rights of fishers and fishworkers are protected and respected.
ContributorsLout, Gabrielle E (Author) / Vogel, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Finkbeiner, Elena (Committee member) / Chhetri, Nalini (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This thesis examines perceptions of climate change in literature through the lens of the environmental humanities, an interdisciplinary field that brings history, ecocriticism, and anthropology together to consider the environmental past, present and future. The project began in Iceland, during the Svartárkot Culture-Nature Program called “Human Ecology and Culture at Lake Mývatn 1700-2000: Dimensions of Environmental and Cultural Change”. Over the course of 10 days, director of the program, Viðar Hreinsson, an acclaimed literary and Icelandic Saga scholar, brought in researchers from different fields of study in Iceland to give students a holistically academic approach to their own environmental research. In this thesis, texts under consideration include the Icelandic Sagas, My Antonia by Willa Cather, Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita, and The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. The thesis is supported by secondary works written by environmental humanists, including Andrew Ross, Steve Hartman, Ignacio Sanchez Cohen, and Joni Adamson, who specialize in archeological research on heritage sites in Iceland and/or study global weather patterns, prairie ecologies in the American Midwest, the history of water in the Southwest, and climate fiction. Chapter One, focusing on the Icelandic Sagas and My Antonia, argues that literature from different centuries, different cultures, and different parts of the world offers evidence that humans have been driving environmental degradation at the regional and planetary scales since at least the 1500s, especially as they have engaged in aggressive forms of settlement and colonization. Chapter Two, focused on Tropic of Orange, this argues that global environmental change leads to extreme weather and drought that is increasing climate migration from the Global South to the Global North. Chapter Three, focused on The Water Knife, argues that climate fiction gives readers the opportunity to think about and better prepare for a viable and sustainable future rather than wait for inevitable apocalypse. By exploring literature that depicts and represents climate change through time, environmental humanists have innovated new methods of analysis for teaching and thinking about what humans must understand about their impacts on ecosystems so that we can better prepare for the future.
ContributorsBurns, Kate S (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis advisor) / Lussier, Mark (Committee member) / Sadowski-Smith, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019