SOCI-1015EL Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Anniston, Alabama, Murray Bookchin, Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines
16 Jun 2018
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Chapter 14: The Environment
Environmental Sociology
• Fastest-growing sub-discipline
• Examines our relationship with the environment
• Highlights that science of the environment is deeply embedded in a social context
- Scientific facts do not speak for themselves, but have to be interpreted by researchers
shaped by their standpoint (their place in the world)
- Scientific world is political▪ Examples: Tataryn (1979), Northern Gateway pipeline
Operational Definitions
• Pollution and other terms are difficult to define and definitions are contested
• The development of operational definitions is aided by the peer review process
- Academic articles and books are brought under the scrutiny of other experts prior to
publication
• Peer review is provided by the community of scholars and serves the advancement of
the discipline
Vested Interests
• Politics are involved in environmental research
• Operational definitions and arguments about the environment are shaped by vested
interests
- Any social or financial interest a party might have in the results of scientific studies
and the way results are interpreted
- Importance of tracing science to its social location
▪ Examples: scientific papers on the health impact of asbestos exposure sponsored by the
asbestos industry, tobacco strategy
Social Ecology
• Murray Bookchin understood socialecology as environmental issues and social problems
• Growing awareness of the human role in environmental issues
Industrial Pollution and Social Ecology
• Workers in polluting industries exposed to health risks (illness and/or injury)
• Preventing the exposure of workers to unsafe environmental conditions is the
responsibility of the employer and the government
- Class conflict
• Mills’s sociological imagination connects individual problems with broader social
structure and its processes
The Asbestos Industry
• Despite the health risks, the federal and provincial government in Quebec promoted the
use of asbestos products, esp. in developing countries
• In 2012, a consortium of epidemiology organizations declared that asbestos fibers are
causally connected to diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis
• In 2015, Health Canada acknowledged that asbestos can cause cancers and other diseases
• Paul Formby worked in the Canadian north on the safety and health committee of a
miners’ union
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• The mining company he worked for challenged the union’s right to test the air for
asbestos pollution
• The company used red herrings
- Logical fallacies in which an irrelevant topic is introduced to divert attention from
original and more important issues of workplace hazard
• Formby’s activism raised awareness for the dangers of asbestos and led to policies
reducing risks
Industrial Communities and the Disposable People of Pollution
• Not only workers, but also communities are exposed to hazardous pollutants
• Poor and marginalized communities are usually most impacted by hazardous pollutants
produced by environmentally unfriendly companies
- Example: Anniston, Alabama & Monsanto
• Organization culture and the moral community help to explain how polluting
industries operate
The Environment and “Race”
• Pollution is often racialized, also referred to as
environmental racism
• Examples
- White nations dispose of waste in poor, racialized nations
- Thedford Mines ships asbestos to developing nations
- The City of Halifax located polluters and dumpsites near Africville
Ken Saro-Wiwa
• Nigeria was created by forcefully uniting distinct nations
• The pollution of the oil industry differentially affects Nigeria’s black and white
populations
• Illustrates effects of colonialism in Africa
The Case of Grassy Narrows
• Shkilnyk (1985) examined racialization of pollution with a case study of the Anishinabe
people of Grassy Narrows
- 1962–1970 Reed Pulp and Paper Company dumps mercury into the English-Wabigoo
river system upstream from Grassy Narrows
- Contamination of fish, vital as food and income
- Pulp and paper industry was a major employer in Ontario
- The community sued Reed Pulp and Paper and the case was settled out-of-court in
1985
• Shkilnyk (1985) had a genuine interest in helping the people of Grassy Narrows and her study
generated valuable insights, but
- Study commissioned by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
(vested interests)
- Study failed to question Reed and government roles o Study was entrenched in
victimology
▪ Portrayed peoples as helpless victims of industrial attack on environment
- Study did not represent the active efforts taken by the community to resolve the crisis
- The author did not include community voices
The Environment and Class
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Environmental sociology: fastest-growing sub-discipline, examines our relationship with the environment, highlights that science of the environment is deeply embedded in a social context. Scientific facts do not speak for themselves, but have to be interpreted by researchers shaped by their standpoint (their place in the world) Scientific world is political examples: tataryn (1979), northern gateway pipeline. Operational definitions: pollution and other terms are difficult to define and definitions are contested, the development of operational definitions is aided by the peer review process. Academic articles and books are brought under the scrutiny of other experts prior to publication: peer review is provided by the community of scholars and serves the advancement of the discipline. Vested interests: politics are involved in environmental research, operational definitions and arguments about the environment are shaped by vested interests. Any social or financial interest a party might have in the results of scientific studies and the way results are interpreted.
