From China's Urban Social Space to Social and Environmental Justice

A senior American specialist on China and noted geographer argues that the preoccupation of China geographers' with empirical analyses of that country's dramatic economic, social, and urban transformation over the last two decades—usually explained in terms of the now familiar quadruple forces of globalization, marketization, deregulation, and decentralization—should be broadened to reflect a concern for the problems of disadvantaged groups impacted negatively in dynamic urban and environmental settings. The methodology of reflexive activism is proposed as affording a framework for a more relevant geography focused on the study of China, with the potential to bring about positive and constructive change on behalf of China's disadvantaged population and its natural environment, and (as a possible side benefit) generate local epistemologies enriching the study of geography more broadly. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P30. 68 references.     

Regulatory Enforcement,Riskscapes, and Environmental Justice

Does environmental regulation vary over poor and minority communities? An uneven governmental response may follow from regulators' varying incentives to negotiate enforcement challenges. We argue that regulators confront two in particular. Regulators can pursue political enforcement, responding to mobilized interests, regardless of environmental risk, or they can pursue instrumental enforcement, responding to at‐risk communities, regardless of political mobilization. To examine these competing strategies, we use an original dataset from the EPA's Risk‐Screening Environmental Indicators model to develop a geographic “riskscape” combined with census tract community data and facility‐level enforcement data. We find that state regulatory agencies pursue a mixture of political and instrumental enforcement, but that these tactics are applied unevenly across traditional environmental justice communities. Specifically, state agencies devote more attention to facilities in communities with relatively higher risk, but less attention in the area of punishment for violations for facilities located in Hispanic communities. Importantly, this lack of attention to Hispanic communities is not mediated by the relative level of risks that they face, but it is to a significant extent in communities in which environmental justice advocacy organizations operate.     

基于新人本主义理念的城市社区生活空间公正结构探讨

本文以城市各阶层日常生活行为的工作(上学)、家务、购物、闲暇活动完成的区位空间结构为议题,运用行为地理学的人本主义研究方法,以社区为基本研究尺度,探讨微观领域社会空间公正体系的结构与模式。得出城市社会空间体系发育阶段,影响城市社区生活空间结构的基本因子为城市资源、社区资源、社区类型-体系与场所体系,社区资源与城市资源在城市内部空间的布局呈\"点-轴\"结合模式,城市资源的线性空间体系格局与社区资源与场所的点状空间镶嵌映射了市场经济规律下城市社区生活空间结构的\"集聚-碎化\"倾向,缺失空间公正。最后,尝试性提出了人本、公平理念下的城市社区生活空间公正结构。     

Governing climate change: the politics of risk society?

This paper examines how the politics of climate change have taken shape within Australia through the construction and contestation of concepts of obligation and responsibility. Beck's risk society thesis offers a conceptual starting point from which to address questions concerning the nature of contemporary risk politics, and the paper examines its relevance and applicability in this case. While Beck's theory provides insight into the nature of risk and directs attention to the ways in which notions of obligation and responsibility structure risk politics, it fails to engage with why, and how, particular definitions of risk and responsibility come to dominate the political arena. It is argued that in Australia the novel challenges climate change poses to the institutions of modernity have been negated through ensuing policy responses which have reinforced links between industry and government, and have defined climate responsibilities within existing relations of production and the spatio-temporal frameworks of modernity.     

Gender and Environmental Justice in Louisiana: Blurring the boundaries of public and private spheres

Many scholars have examined the implications and effects of a putative dichotomy between public-as-masculine and private-as-feminine spheres on community activism, and suggest that women's community activism blurs this ideological divide in numerous ways. This article draws on a case study of a siting conflict in St. James Parish, Louisiana, to examine how, in the process of blurring boundaries between gendered spheres of interest and activity, predominantly women environmental justice activists contended with differently gendered contexts. Concepts of performance and performativity shed light on how gendered hierarchies of public and private sphere activism both constrained and enabled the protest group's political practice.     

The Limited Effects of Federal Environmental Justice Policy on State Enforcement

The federal government adopted several measures during the mid-1990s to address concerns about race-based and class-based disparities in environmental protection. This article examines whether these measures affected the pattern of state enforcement of three federal pollution control laws. Using differences-in-differences models to estimate the effects of the federal policy adoption, I find evidence of increases in state enforcement of the Clean Air Act in large African-American communities, but declines in enforcement in communities with large poor and Hispanic populations. Similarly, there is evidence that state enforcement of the Clean Water Act decreased in poor and African-American communities, but there were no real changes in enforcement of facilities regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Collectively, the analysis suggests that the federal policy had minimal positive effects on state regulatory enforcement.     

From Urban Social Space to Social and Environmental Justice: Observations on Laurence Ma's Essay

A senior American specialist on China and noted geographer evaluates the merits of an essay by an equally prominent specialist who advocates reflexive activism as a method designed to generate more relevant studies of the country. The author of the evaluation stresses the value of empirically based work, noting a number of contributions by geographers to the study of China's transition from doctrinaire communism to "socialism with Chinese characteristics." While not denying the need for geographical research focused on deficiencies in social and environmental justice, he is not in favor of excessive activism that may overlook advances in economic development and related accomplishments of China's governing regime. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P30. 24 references.     

中国环境税负空间累进性测度及其影响效应分析

本文从人文地理学的社会空间公正理念出发,以经济学的\"蓝色红利\"视角为切入点,探讨了中国区域环境税负空间差异问题。研究表明我国环境税负空间累进性与区域经济发展水平存在显著的正相关关系。经济区域中,北部沿海、东部沿海、东北、黄河中游以及南部沿海地区的环境税负空间累进性指数较大,长江中游、西南及西北地区则表现出负的空间溢出效应,环境税加大了区域间的收入差距;传统三大区域中,东部地区和中部地区的环境税负具有空间累进特性。此外,西部地区的资源税起到了更好的税收调节作用。资源成本的增加促使使用者提高资源利用效率,抑制需求,有助于将资源消费控制在一个合理的水平,实现收入的合理分配和不可再生资源的可持续利用。排污费则扭曲了税收分配机制,降低了生产要素的配置效率。鉴于此,从新区域主义的\"统筹理念\"出发,提出了构建区域环境税负空间公正性的设计机制。