Geographies of Risk, the Regulatory State, and the Ethic of Care

Abstract

We examine the role of the regulatory state in the inequitable distribution of social advantages and disadvantages. To illustrate this, we examine the spatial distribution of exposures to air toxics from noxious land uses (commonly referred to as the environmental justice problem) and inquire into the nature of state action that would allow such inequity. Findings from our inquiry lead us to focus more closely on the administrative functions of the state, especially its role as a regulatory body. A case study focusing on health risks from incompatible land uses illustrates how spatial inequities result from the formally neutral rule-making actions of regulatory agencies and their particular organizational cultures. We describe the ethical basis of the regulatory state in terms of its formal, juridical, deontological underpinnings. In contrast to this stands the alternative ethical concept of care, which is inherently relational, contextual, and preferentially attentive to the needs of the vulnerable. We argue that the regulatory state can be reformed, building structures of care to better address issues of spatial inequity. We end with a discussion of how the institutional model of the caring state might be achieved in practice.

我们检视管制型国家在社会优势与劣势的不公平分配中扮演的角色。为了阐述上述论点,我们检视暴露在有毒土地使用散发出的气体毒素下的空间分佈(一般称为环境正义问题),并探讨准许此般不公平的国家行动本质。我们的研究探问之发现,引领我们更仔细地聚焦国家的行政功能,特别是其作为管制组织的角色。聚焦不相容的土地使用所导致的健康风险,说明了空间不公如何源自管制单位的官方中立规则制定行动及其特定的组织文化。我们以管制型国家的官方、法律和去本体论支撑来描绘其道德基础。与之相反的则是照护的另类道德概念,此一概念本质上是关係性、脉络化的,并优先关照脆弱者的需求。我们主张,管制型国家能够进行改革,建立照护的结构,以更佳地处理空间不公的问题。我们于结论中,探讨照护国家的制度模型如何能够实际达成。

Examinamos el papel del estado regulador en la distribución desigual de ventajas y desventajas sociales. Para ilustrar este asunto examinamos la distribución espacial de exposiciones a tóxicos aéreos derivados de usos nocivos del suelo (comúnmente referidos como problema de justicia ambiental) e inquirimos sobre la naturaleza de la acción estatal que podría permitir tal tipo de iniquidad. Los hallazgos logrados en nuestra indagación nos llevan a enfocarnos con mayor cuidado sobre las funciones administrativas del estado, especialmente aquellas que conciernen a su papel como cuerpo regulador. Un estudio de caso que se ocupa de los riesgos de la salud asociados con usos incompatibles del suelo ilustra cómo subsisten las desigualdades espaciales derivadas de las acciones formalmente neutrales para expedir normas de las agencias reguladoras y de las culturas organizacionales particulares. Describimos las bases éticas del estado regulador en términos de sus apuntalamientos formales, jurídicos y deontológicos. En contraste con eso, se yergue el concepto ético alternativo de la incumbencia, que es inherentemente relacional, contextual y de preferencia preocupado por las necesidades de la población vulnerable. Sostenemos que el estado regulador puede ser reformado, mediante la construcción de estructuras de cuidado social para mejor enfrentar los problemas de injusticia espacial. Al final, discutimos sobre la manera como en la práctica podría lograrse el modelo institucional del estado solidario.

Key Words:

• environmental justice
• ethic of care
• governance
• regulatory state
• spatial inequity

关键词：:

• 环境正义,照护伦理,治理,管制型国家,空间不公。

Palabras clave:

• justicia ambiental
• ética de la incumbencia
• gobernanza
• estado regulador
• injusticia espacial

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank three anonymous reviewers and the editor, Dr. Bruce Braun, for their suggestions, which improved the article considerably. The authors also thank Bahram Fazeli and Gideon Kracov for sharing a wealth of insight and information on environmental justice issues in Southeast Los Angeles.

Notes

1. Regulation, in this body of literature, does not refer to government regulation but, rather, the action of state and other actors in “regularizing” or “stabilizing” regimes of capital accumulation.

2. The TRI (Toxics Release Inventory) Program reporting thresholds are 25,000 pounds for chemicals that are manufactured or processed and 10,000 pounds for chemicals that are otherwise used.

3. Strictly speaking, when risks are this high, a nonlinear dose–response function should be used.

4. Downloaded on 17 January 2016 from http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-24/news/hl-2513_1_hexavalent-chromium

5. The four community-based organizations are Communities for a Better Environment, Coalition for a Safe Environment, Pacoima Beautiful, and Union de Vecinos. In addition, dozens of other groups and local businesses have signed on as project supporters.

6. The area studied, SELA, lies outside the City of Los Angeles.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raul P. Lejano

RAUL P. LEJANO is an Associate Professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, New York, NY 10003. E-mail: [email protected]. His research revolves around theories of policy and planning, with a specific interest in relational institutional models for environmental governance, building on his book, Frameworks for Policy Analysis: Merging Text and Context.

Richard Funderburg

RICHARD FUNDERBURG is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL 62703–5407. E-mail: [email protected]. His research estimates the impacts of public planning and management interventions on regional economic growth and the distribution of benefits and harm from development policies.