Living environmentalisms: coalition politics, social reproduction, and environmental justice

Abstract

This paper examines the intersectional, coalition politics forged by activists in US environmental justice and women's rights organisations. This coalitional politics articulates environmental and feminist concerns and rejects the limitations of a narrow-focused politics in favour of a more strategic, relational vision of social and environmental change. Framed by the Marxist-feminist concept of ‘social reproduction’, the analysis addresses the complex ways that globalised capitalism has transformed state and corporate responsibilities for social reproduction. The neoliberal policies of privatisation and deregulation have eroded the assurance of a liveable wage, affordable healthcare, decent education, breathable air, and clean water. Drawing on several examples from grassroots movements and community-based organisations, the essay discusses how diverse women activists conceptually link environmental justice and reproductive rights issues in their communities' struggles to sustain everyday life (or, to accomplish ‘social reproduction’). The innovative coalition politics of organisations such as Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Coalition are generating dynamic ‘living environmentalisms’ with enough political vision and community ‘groundedness’ to build broadly-based social–environmental collaborations that stand a chance at compelling people to take stronger action to curb problems as big as global warming.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to colleagues who have read and given feedback on early versions of this paper: Rachel Stein, Eveline Shen, Katie Hogan, Cate Mortimer-Sandilands, and Anne Wibiralske. The author is also grateful to the editors of this special issue of Environmental Politics – David Schlosberg and Elizabeth Bomberg – for their insightful comments and editorial talents.

Notes

 1. The essay ‘The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World,’ argues that not only is the mainstream environmental movement dead (in the sense of ‘outdated’), but it should accept that its central conceptual frame —a disarticulated ‘environment’ that needs saving— ‘must die so that something new can live’ (2004, p. 10). Available at: http://www.3nov.com/images/report_doe_final.pdf. The book-length version of the authors' critique expands upon this central thesis of a failed environmental movement. See Nordhaus and Shellenberger (2007).

 2. To access the library of reports produced by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment visit: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx.

 3. For a full review and appraisal of the status of women and conclusions drawn from the Beijing +10 special session of the General Assembly, see the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, available at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/. Also see the report by the Women's Environment and Development Organisation, WEDO (2005).

 4. Marlene Gerber Fried, ‘What if Roe falls? ’, 20th Annual International Conference on Reproductive Freedom, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, 7–9 April 2006.

 5. A term coined by Blain et al. (2005).

 6. Histories and analyses of the environmental justice movement and its theoretical and political underpinnings can be found in Bullard (1994, 2005); Camacho (1998); Di Chiro (1998); Schlosberg (1999); Cole and Foster (2001); Hofrichter (2002); Gottlieb (2005); Pellow and Brulle (2006).

 7. The response to the critiques of early framings of sustainability as being about protecting ‘our common future’ – now that the world's ecosystems are showing signs of breaking down after hundreds of years of exploitation in the service of progress and modernisation for the West and at the moment that countries of the Global South are demanding their share of the development pie – has resulted in the emphasising of the term ‘equality’ in, for example, United Nations discourse, as one of the necessary ingredients of what should constitute sustainable development (see The Ecologist 1993, Chatterjee and Finger 1994). The language of sustainability has since been appropriated, reclaimed, and modified to reflect different approaches and commitments to balancing economic security, human rights, and ecological integrity (see, for example, Agyeman et al. 2003).

 8. See Fried (1990) and Solinger (2005) for background on Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 109 S. Ct. 3040, 3077–3079 (1989).

 9. Author's interview with Eveline Shen, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ), Oakland, CA, 28 October 2005.

10. Author's interview with Eveline Shen, ACRJ, 28 October 2005.

11. Author's interview with Amber Chan, Asian Pacific Islander Environmental Network (APEN), Oakland, California, 31 October 2005.

12. Author's interview with Aparna Shah, ACRJ, Oakland, CA, 31 October 2005.

13. Author's interview with Eveline Shen, ACRJ, 28 October 2005.

14. Author's interview with Eveline Shen, 28 October 2005 and Aparna Shah, ACRJ, 31 October 2005.

15. Author's interview with Aparna Shah and Dana Ginn Paredes, ACRJ, 31 October 2005.

16. Beverly Wright, Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and Professor of Sociology at Dillard University (New Orleans), Monique Harden, Co-director of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (New Orleans), Margie Eugene-Richard, former President, Concerns Citizens of Norco (Norco, LA), Juanita Stewart, President, North Baton Rouge Environmental Association (Alsen, LA).

17. See World Health Organisation (2005) Climate Change and Human Health, available at: http://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/en/index.html and EPA's Global Warming website, http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html.

18. See Indigenous Environmental Network, Climate Justice Campaign, available at: http://www.ienearth.org/climate_campaign.html.

19. Author's interview with Ansje Miller, former Programme Director for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC), Redefining Progress, Oakland, California, 26 July 2006.

20. For more information on the California's Climate Action Initiative, go to the California Climate Change Portal at: http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/climate_action_team/. Also see, Cordova (2006). Information on the ‘green for all’ initiative launched by members of the US climate justice coalition can be found at: http://www.greenforall.org/.

21. Author's interview with Ansje Miller, EJCC, 26 July 2006.