Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; email:
Annu Rev Public Health. 2023 Apr 3;44:93-111. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071621-064925. Epub 2023 Jan 9.
Taking stock of environmental justice (EJ) is daunting. It is at once a scholarly field, an ongoing social movement, and an administrative imperative adopted by government agencies and incorporated into legislation. Moreover, within academia, it is multidisciplinary and multimethodological, comprising scholars who do not always speak to one another. Any review of EJ is thus necessarily restrictive. This article explores several facets of EJ activism. One is its coalitional and "inside-outside" orientation. EJ activists are constantly forming alliances with other stakeholders, but these coalitions do not flout the importance of engaging with formal institutions. The review next turns to one set of such institutions-the courts and regulatory agencies-to see how well EJ claims have fared there. I then survey scientific findings that have been influenced by EJ. The review concludes with future directions for activists and scholars to consider: the changing nature of EJ coalitions, fragmentation within EJ and with other fields, the historical roots of environmental injustice, and opportunities for stronger infusion of the EJ lens.
评估环境正义(EJ)是一项艰巨的任务。它既是一个学术领域,也是一场正在进行的社会运动,还是政府机构采用并纳入立法的行政命令。此外,在学术界,它是多学科和多方法的,包括学者们并不总是相互交流。因此,对 EJ 的任何审查都必然具有局限性。本文探讨了 EJ 激进主义的几个方面。一个方面是其联合和“内外兼顾”的定位。EJ 活动家不断与其他利益相关者结成联盟,但这些联盟并没有忽视与正式机构接触的重要性。审查接下来转向一组这样的机构——法院和监管机构——看看 EJ 主张在那里表现如何。然后,我调查了受 EJ 影响的科学发现。审查最后为活动家和学者们提供了一些需要考虑的未来方向:EJ 联盟性质的变化、EJ 内部与其他领域的分裂、环境不公正的历史根源以及更有力地融入 EJ 视角的机会。