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Environmental Justice and Disasters

View of candles lit from above which spells "No More Bhopals"Fellows associated with the Environmental Justice Division (EJD) of the Center are involved in research, scholarship, and programs that address critical issues pertaining to social and environmental justice. Our efforts are based on the principle that environmental quality is a basic human right of all people and nations. Ensuring this right requires that socio-environmental impacts of human activities are distributed in a fair and equitable manner, that open access to information, services and resources is secured for all people, and that democratic principles and practices are maintained throughout the environmental decision and policy-making process.  In this way, strategies and solutions can be implemented that do justice to the environment, people, and to future generations. The EJD draws from the collective experience, expertise, and wisdom of all parties involved in the struggle for environmental justice. It seeks private and public support for interdisciplinary research on local, regional, national, international and global aspects of environmental injustice and democracy.  Fellows in the Division include faculty and students from the College of Education, Health and Human Services, the College of Law, Agricultural Economics, Anthropology, Communications and Information, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, and Women’s Studies.

Representative Publications

  • Alderman, Derek H. and Robert N. Brown. 2011. “When a New Deal is Actually an Old Deal: The Role of TVA in Engineering a Racialized Jim Crow Landscape.” Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Mega-engineering Projects, Volume 3, Springer (edited by Stanly Brunn), pp. 1901-1916.
  • Moreau, Terri, and Derek H. Alderman. 2011. “Graffiti Hurts and the Eradication of Alternative Landscape Expression.” Geographical Review 101(1): 106-124.
  • Eskridge, Anna and Derek H. Alderman. 2010. “Alien Invaders, Plant Thugs, and the Southern Curse: Framing Kudzu as Environmental Other through Discourses of Fear.” Southeastern Geographer 50(1): 110-129.
  • Alderman, Derek H. 2006. “Naming Streets after Martin Luther King, Jr.: No Easy Road.” Landscape and Race in the United States, Routledge Press (edited by Richard Schein), pp. 213-236.
  • Clark, C. D., & C. S. Russell. 2009. Ecological Conservation: The Problems of Targeting Policies and Designing Instruments,” Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research 1(1): 21-34.
  • Cho, S-H, C.D. Clark, W.M. Park,, & S. G. Kim, 2009. Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Market Values of Lot Size and Public Open Space.” Land Economics 85(1): 51-73
  • Russell, C. S., C.D. Clark, & E.C. Schuck, 2007. “Economic Instruments for Water Management
    In the Middle-East and North Africa.” International Journal of Water Resources Development 23(4): 711-28.
  • Frey, R.S., 2013. Globalization, Environmental Health, and Social Justice. London: Routledge, Under Contract.
  • Frey, R.S., 2012. “The E-Waste Stream in the World-System.” Journal of Globalization Studies 3.
  • Frey, R.S., 2012. “Tobacco Trafficking in the World-System.” In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, edited by George Ritzer. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Frey, R.S., 2012. “The Displacement of Hazardous Products, Production Processes, and Wastes in the World-System.” Pp. 439-442 in Routledge Handbook of World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Research, edited by Salvatore Babones and Christopher Chase-Dunn. New York: Routledge.
  • Gellert, P. K. 2012. “Extraction and the World-System.” Chapter 12.5 in Salvatore Babones and Christopher Chase-Dunn, Eds., The Handbook of World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Research. New York: Routledge.
  • Gunnoe, A. and P. K. Gellert. 2011. “Financialization, Shareholder Value, and the Transformation of Timberland Ownership in North America.” Critical Sociology 37(2): 1-24.
  • Gellert, P. K., 2010. “Extractive Regimes: Towards a Better Understanding of Indonesian Development.” Rural Sociology 75(1): 28-57.
  • Gellert, P.K., 2007. “From Managed to Freer Markets: Transnational and Regional Governance of Asian Timber,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, v. 610 (March): 246-259
  • Jones, R. E., & S. A. Rainey. 2006. “Examining Linkages between Race, Environmental Concern, Health and Justice in a Highly-Polluted Community of Color.” Journal of Black Studies, 36 (10): 473-496.
  • Rainey, S. A., & R. E. Jones, 2006. “Addressing Environmental Concerns and Health Issues in Clarksville, Tennessee.” The Negro Educational Review Journal, 56(4): 301-309.
  • Mason, L. R. 2012. “Gender and Asset Dimensions of Seasonal Water Insecurity in Urban Philippines.” Weather, Climate, and Society, 4(1), 20-33.
  • Nolt, J., 2011. “Greenhouse Gas Emission and the Domination of Posterity.” In D. Arnold, (ed.), The Ethics of Global Climate Change, Cambridge Press.
  • Nolt, J., 2011. Injustice in the Handling of Nuclear Weapons Waste: The Case of David Witherspoon, Inc.,” In M. Marrone & G. Buckley (Eds.), Mountains of Injustice: Social and Environmental Justice in Appalachia, Ohio Press.
  • Nolt, J., 2005 (Ed). A Land Imperiled: The Declining Health of the Southern Appalachian Bioregion, University of Tennessee Press.

Grants

  • Clark, C.D., K.L. Jensen, and S Yen. “Consumer labeling and Miotivation Crowding Out.” A $309,171 grant from the USA-EPA, STAR Grant, Environmental Behavior and Decision-Making: Determining the Effectiveness of Environmental Information Disclosure and Provision, (2006-2009)
  • Jensen, K.L., C.D. Clark, B. English, and D De La Torre Ugarte. “Cellulosic to Biofuel Market Development: Producers’ Feedstock Production and Consumer Willingness to Pay Cellulosic Ethanol,” A $259, 288 grant from the National Research Initiative, USDA, (2008-2009).
  • Nolt, J. “University of Tennessee’s 25 Year Energy Plan.” A $25,000 grant from the Rebuild America Program, US-DOE. (2006)
  • Ritchie, L., R. E. Jones and J. M. Fly. “Survey of Effects of Technological Disasters on Social Capital: TVA Ash Release.” A $644,000 collaborative grant proposal submitted by University of Colorado – Natural Hazards Center, the Department of Sociology, and the Human Dimensions Lab-University of Tennessee to NSF (Under Review)
  • Walker, F. R., S. Hawkins, C.D. Clark, A.C. Layton and D.M Lambert. “Enhancing Water Quality in Tennessee’s Oostanuala Watershed: An Integrated Approach Towards Understanding Adoption and Efficacy of BMPS.” A $614,994 grant proposal submitted to the Integrated Research, Education and Extension Competitive Grants Program- National Integrated Water Quality Programs, CSREES, USDA (Under Review).
  • Wszelaki, A. (UT Project Director), D. Hayes, R. E. Jones, J. Lee, L. Wadsworth (UT Project Co-Directors). “The Potential for Biodegradable Materials for Specialty Crops Under Protective Covers.” A $1,999,202 multi-university grant from CSREES, USDA (2009-2012)