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86 Calif. L. Rev. 775 (1998)
Justice from the Ground Up: Distributive Inequities, Grassroots Resistance, and the Transformative Politics of the Environmental Justice Movement

handle is hein.journals/calr86 and id is 789 raw text is: Justice from the Ground Up: Distributive Inequities, Grassroots Resistance, and the Transformative Politics of the Environmental Justice Movement Sheila Fostert In this Article, Professor Foster examines the environmental justice movement from the ground up -from the perspective of the predomi- nantly poor, African-American residents of Chester, Pennsylvania who attempted to stop the clustering of waste facilities in their community. From this perspective, Professor Foster evaluates the manner in which the phenomenon of environmental injustice is framed, the efficacy of reforms in environmental decision-making processes, and the strategies and possibilities of grassroots efforts in achieving environmental justice. She argues that the distributive paradigm that often frames discussions of environmental injustice obscures the mechanisms and processes un- derlying inequitable outcomes, thwarting a full understanding of the phenomenon. Case studies such as Chester, however, illustrate that dis- proportionate exposure to environmental hazards result from a set of ongoing social processes that structure the political economy of poor communities of color. These grassroots struggles provide a window into the social relations and processes underlying distributive inequities and, thus, assist reformers in identifying the types of policy reforms likely to help achieve environmental justice. Professor Foster argues that Copyright © 1998 California Law Review, Inc. t Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law-Camden, New Jersey. The author expresses her sincere appreciation to the following people for reading and commenting on this Article at various stages of its development: Luke Cole, Roger Dennis, Giovanna Di Chiro, David Frankford, Angela Harris, Craig Oren, Jesse Ribot, Neil Smith, the 1996-1997 fellows at the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture (CCACC) in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the 1997 summer interns at the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment in San Francisco, California. This Article also benefited tremendously from the expert research assistance of Henry Komansky. This Article was supported both by the author's year-long fellowship with CCACC, which was partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, and a research grant from Rutgers Law School. The author also extends her sincere gratitude to Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life, particularly Zulene Mayfield and Jerome Baiter, Esq. Finally, the author thanks Elizabeth Linette for her continued support throughout the process of writing this Article.

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