This seminar introduces students to basic principles of environmental justice and presents frameworks for analyzing and addressing inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens from the perspectives of social science, public policy, and law.
The first section of the course explores conceptions of justice in relation to the environment and presents the foundations and principles of the environmental justice movement.
The second section of the course analyzes different approaches to challenging environmental racism. It applies environmental justice principles to cost-benefit and risk analysis practices and to federal and state environmental standards and regulations. It also analyzes the contributions of civil rights litigation, citizen science, land use policy, and community organizing to the environmental justice movement.
The third section of the course draws on this knowledge about approaches to environmental justice to consider contemporary issues in the field, such as environmental gentrification, climate justice, and economic justice.
The OCW site for this course features an extensive reading list and bibliography, with many resources available free online.
View the course materials at https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-368-environmental-justice-law-and-policy-fall-2019/index.htm
Image: Encampment of protesters at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in 2016, when plans to route an oil pipeline nearby attracted opposition from tribal activists and environmentalists. (Photo courtesy of Becker1999 on Flickr. License: CC BY.)
