Environmental Justice, Regulation, and the Local Community

Abstract

This article examines the sociological significance of the concept of “environmental justice” for grassroots groups responding to toxic contamination in their local communities. Taking into account nationwide mobilization patterns in such communities, the author documents a precedent-setting episode in the city of Jacksonville, Arkansas, where citizen protests and support from national environmental groups led the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw three Technical Assistance Grants inappropriately awarded to a group with links to a polluting industry, and subsequently to rewrite the rules for participation in such grants. As the first such challenge nationally, the Jacksonville scenario is an important “test case” and permits a theoretical and practical evaluation of the relationship between social groups, technology, and the governmental regulatory process. More particularly, it gives insight into the Technical Assistance Grants program, which was set up to enable citizens living close to contaminated sites to interpret and evaluate technical information relating to such sites, but which has been undercut by a weak EPA and cooptation efforts by industries. The article concludes with an exploration of the concept of community in relation to the new construction of environmental justice engaged in by grassroots groups fighting contamination locally and nationally.