Between borderlands and bioregionalism: Life‐place lessons along a polluted river

Dicochea, Perlita R.

doi:10.1080/08865655.2010.9695748

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Border regions are physical spaces possessing a unique cultural perspective (Diochea 2010). They are the first point of contact and interaction between nations (Alper and Loucky 2007), and provide cross-border linkages that span international borders.…”

Section: Borders and Borderlands: Defining The Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridges and Barriers: The Lake Superior Borderlands

Alm

Burkhart²

2013

Journal of Borderlands Studies

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This paper investigates the Canada-U.S. borderlands relationship along the two geographic corridors as bounded by Lake Superior: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Thunder Bay, Ontario-Duluth, Minnesota. Borderland communities-driven by their shared cultural characteristics (ethnicity, language, religion)-are said to challenge the border as a dividing device and undermine the very essence of international borders. Moreover, borderlands regions are dynamic and overlapping, providing the first point of contact and interaction between nations. Our results depict inherent differences between these particular border regions, with each illustrating characteristics that both connect and divide. Despite the passage of time and both countries' determined efforts to make the passage safe and less demanding, the peoples in these border regions perceive a continuing frustration with crossing the border and connecting to the people on the other side of the border.

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Section: Borders and Borderlands: Defining The Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridges and Barriers: The Lake Superior Borderlands

Alm

Burkhart²

2013

Journal of Borderlands Studies

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“…Similar to the problems I identify in the work of Wright and Bryner, metanarratives of ER do not capture the intricacies of cultural identity, class, cross-border social positions, race, and racism that I encounter in my analyses of the bi-national New River pollution problem that flows south from Mexicali, Baja California through a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American population in the City of Calexico, located in Imperial County, California (Dicochea 2006;2010;. The River is composed of a toxic mix of agricultural, industrial and household run-off including a long list of chemicals and biological contaminants that threaten the environment and public health.…”

Section: Environmental Racism On the Borderlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other developments of my research, I employ borderlands thought in partnership with bioregionalism and assert that it is necessary to apply a layered observation to the region's New River contamination problem -one that considers material and ideological political divides that coexist with material and ideological cross-border ways of living and knowing (Dicochea 2010). Borderlands thought acknowledges the ways that people draw from multiple cultural values and in the process negotiate various forces of power.…”

Section: Environmental Racism On the Borderlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When focusing on the problem of New River pollution in the U.S., I make the case for environmental racism given the significantly uneven distribution of resources from state and federal agencies -including financial assistance, research commitments and expert attention -by the border communities of Imperial County versus San Diego County for similar transnational water pollution problems. San Diego County has received an unprecedented amount of financial assistance from the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), which will likely not be offered to any other border region in the future (Dicochea 2006;2010). Demographic and other variables distinguish the two counties, -with Imperial County characterized by a much higher percentage of Spanish-dominant households, consistently higher rates of unemployment, and a higher percentage of persons living at, or below ,the poverty level in comparison to San Diego County and the rest of the state (Dicochea 2006;2010;.…”

Section: Environmental Racism On the Borderlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…San Diego County has received an unprecedented amount of financial assistance from the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), which will likely not be offered to any other border region in the future (Dicochea 2006;2010). Demographic and other variables distinguish the two counties, -with Imperial County characterized by a much higher percentage of Spanish-dominant households, consistently higher rates of unemployment, and a higher percentage of persons living at, or below ,the poverty level in comparison to San Diego County and the rest of the state (Dicochea 2006;2010;. The border community of Calexico (population 30,000) is particularly vulnerable as the first US recipient of the toxic River.…”

Section: Environmental Racism On the Borderlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discourses of Race & Racism Within Environmental Justice Studies: An Eco-racial Intervention

Dicochea¹

2012

ERCW

Self Cite

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The social force of race in relation to natural resources plays a prominent role in the development of environmental justice studies within the United States. Many have recorded the history of data gathering that founded environmental racism as an analytic framework (Bullard 1993a(Bullard , 1993bPulido 1996aPulido , 1996bBullard 1997;Agyeman, Bullard, et al 2003;Visgilio and Whitelaw 2003;Pellow and Brulle 2005;Manaster 2005). Studies by environmental justice (EJ) scholars demonstrate that racism is related to multiple social discourses and structures, and is imbedded in dominant value systems (Hurley 1995;Pulido 1996a;Bullard 1997;Laduke 1999; Cole and Foster 2001;Gedicks 2001;Peña 2005;Lipsitz 2012). While EJ studies has grown since initial assertions of environmental racism (ER) in the 1970s, and a few EJ scholars offer alternative, critical approaches, I contend that as a theoretical paradigm ER remains under-analyzed in some social science EJ scholarship. Building on the work of Michael Omi and Howard Winant (1994), I argue that in the dominant ER discourse relations between race and natural resources are often only observable as specific types of racist eco-racial projects. I intercede an eco-racial consciousness in order to foster more analytic scrutiny of ER metanarratives and expand the vision for assessing relationships between racial and environmental processes.This eco-racial intervention is intended to encourage more direct engagement within the field of EJ with the dynamic ways in which society creates meanings around and makes uses of race and environmental resources in relation to each other by building stronger connections to racial formation theory. Some EJ scholars hold conflicting views in debates about ER, and present different directions for further analyses of race, racial projects, and White privilege in relation to environmental inequalities (Pulido 1996b, 2000; Bolin G., Grineski S. E., and Collins, T. 2005; Lipsitz 2012). My focus regards the restrictive understandings of environmental racism that are maintained and unquestioned in prominent EJ texts, are detached from critical evaluations of ER, and at times erect debilitating boundaries around the presence and contours of race in relation to natural resources. The theoretical implications include the promotion of essentialist applications of race, racism, the environment, and a colorblind or homogenizing tendency in the use of the phrase 'environmental justice'. I promulgate that racial formation theory facilitates an alternative notion of the environment -one that includes where we live, work and play -as many EJ scholars and activists assert; nature, as mainstream environmentalists understand it; as well as the processes by which we create meanings that impact and are impacted by, among other things, racial, gender, and class formations.In this essay, environment indicates relationships between various social and environmental forces. Discourses of Race & Racism Within Environmental Justice Studies: An Eco-racial InterventionBy Per...

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One Bioregion/One Health: An Integrative Narrative for Transboundary Planning along the US–Mexico Border

Pezzoli¹,

Kozo²,

Ferran³

et al. 2014

Global Society

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Global megatrends—including climate change, food and water insecurity, economic crisis, large-scale disasters and widespread increases in preventable diseases—are motivating a bioregionalisation of planning in city-regions around the world. Bioregionalisation is an emergent process. It is visible where societies have begun grappling with complex socio-ecological problems by establishing place-based (territorial) approaches to securing health and well-being. This article examines a bioregional effort to merge place-based health planning and ecological restoration along the US–Mexico border. The theoretical construct underpinning this effort is called One Bioregion/One Health (OBROH). OBROH frames health as a transborder phenomenon that involves human-animal-environment interactions. The OBROH approach aims to improve transborder knowledge networking, ecosystem resilience, community participation in science–society relations, leadership development and cross-disciplinary training. It is a theoretically informed narrative to guide action. OBROH is part of a paradigm shift evident worldwide; it is redefining human-ecological relationships in the quest for healthy place making. The article concludes on a forward-looking note about the promise of environmental epidemiology, telecoupling, ecological restoration, the engaged university and bioregional justice as concepts pertinent to reinventing place-based planning.

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Between borderlands and bioregionalism: Life‐place lessons along a polluted river

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Bridges and Barriers: The Lake Superior Borderlands

Bridges and Barriers: The Lake Superior Borderlands

Discourses of Race & Racism Within Environmental Justice Studies: An Eco-racial Intervention

One Bioregion/One Health: An Integrative Narrative for Transboundary Planning along the US–Mexico Border

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