Downey Liam
Sociology Department, University of Colorado.
Sociol Spectr. 2005;25(3):349-369. doi: 10.1080/027321790518870.
This article demonstrates that the conclusions environmental inequality researchers draw vary according to the definitions of environmental inequality they employ and that researchers can use a single set of results to test for the existence of multiple forms of environmental inequality. In order to illustrate these points, I set forth five definitions of environmental inequality, list the kinds of evidence we must obtain in order to determine whether each form of environmental inequality exists, and show how conclusions drawn from several recent environmental inequality studies vary depending on the definition of environmental inequality we employ. My goal is not to show that any one definition is superior to the others; nor am I trying to generalize from the studies reported here to a broader set of research findings. Instead, my goal is to a) show that we can use a single set of results to address a variety of environmental justice concerns and b) demonstrate that our interpretations of environmental inequality research have been too narrowly focused on one set of environmental inequality outcomes.
本文表明，环境不平等研究人员得出的结论会因他们所采用的环境不平等定义的不同而有所差异，并且研究人员可以使用同一组结果来检验多种形式的环境不平等是否存在。为了阐明这些观点，我提出了环境不平等的五种定义，列出了为确定每种形式的环境不平等是否存在我们必须获取的证据类型，并展示了从最近几项环境不平等研究中得出的结论如何因我们所采用的环境不平等定义的不同而有所不同。我的目的不是表明任何一种定义比其他定义更优越；我也不是试图从这里报告的研究推广到更广泛的研究结果。相反，我的目的是：a）表明我们可以使用同一组结果来解决各种环境正义问题；b）证明我们对环境不平等研究的解释过于狭隘地集中在一组环境不平等结果上。
