Postcolonial environmental justice: Government and governance in India

Williams, Glyn; Mawdsley, Emma

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.08.003

Cited by 96 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We concur with Williams and Mawdsley (2006) that we must be cautious in the application of EJ concepts derived from the west to post-colonial contexts, especially with respect to the state. While India's post-colonial state has undoubtedly been pluralized by lower-caste and lower-class voices since independence and has moved forward on key environmental fronts, it nevertheless continues to be dominated by elite interests.…”

Section: Defining the Urban Fringe Across The North And Southsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Second, our comparative project contributes to literatures that seek to learn not only across the North and South, but also specifically across EJ and UPE scholarship. We define EJ as a policy and scholarly vocabulary that grew out of activist concerns around the racially unjust distribution of environmental externalities, first in the United States (e.g., Bullard, 1994;Pulido, 2000) and subsequently via a more global brand (Agyeman, 2014;McDonald, 2002;Myers, 2008;Walker & Bulkeley, 2006;Williams & Mawdsley, 2006). Under EJ research, we include both health-oriented and critical theoretical strands.…”

Section: Introduction: Comparison As Transnational Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Water marginalization at the urban fringe: environmental justice and urban political ecology across the North–South divide

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reconsiders the epistemic and geographic boundaries that have long separated scholarship on urban water poverty and politics in the Global North and South. We stage an encounter between the seemingly dissimilar cases of Tooleville outside of the city of Exeter in California's Central Valley and Bommanahalli outside of Bangalore, India, to illuminate the geography of water marginalization at the fringes of urban areas, and to deepen cross-fertilization between two geographic literatures: environmental justice (EJ) and urban political ecology (UPE). We argue that there is scope for transnational learning in three arenas in particular: (1) water access, (2) state practice, and (3) political agency. In so doing, we aim to advance a genuinely postcolonial approach to theory and practice in the pressing arena of urban water politics.

show abstract

Section: Defining the Urban Fringe Across The North And Southsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introduction: Comparison As Transnational Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water marginalization at the urban fringe: environmental justice and urban political ecology across the North–South divide

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…He explained that the demolition did not occur (although Jha, 2014 suggests that the buildings were demolished) and that the Commissioner was suspended for his tough stance following pressure from the ruling party (this is corroborated in the literature - Nezami, 2015;Tewary, 2015;Verma, 2015). This suggests that the system is extremely resistant to improving practices and supports Williams and Mawdseley's (2006) point that in India honest government officers face a huge struggle trying to combat corruption.…”

Section: Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 82%

“…A particular issue for seismic resilience is the 'invisible' difference between safe and unsafe reinforced concrete construction (Krimgold, 2011). The building regulatory process requires competent professionals to review plans and inspect sites and in most developing countries, state bodies are under-resourced and underfunded and technical resources in terms of trained personnel are limited (for India, see Williams & Mawdseley, 2006 regarding environmental agencies/regulation; Kathuria, 2007 for pollution;and Chandel, Sharma, & Marwaha, 2016 for energy efficiency in buildings). The private sector, in such cases, is more likely to be able to compete in terms of paying good salaries to competent professionals.…”

Section: Expertise Capacity and Sector Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compliance with the building byelaws and earthquake safety in urban areas of Bihar: progress, constraints and challenges

Jones

Vasvani

2017

Environmental Hazards

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Citation: Jones, Samantha and Vasvani, Vishal (2017) Compliance with the building byelaws and earthquake safety in urban areas of Bihar: progress, constraints and challenges. Environmental Hazards, 16 (4 Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University's research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.)Compliance with the building byelaws and earthquake safety in urban areas of Bihar: progress, constraints and challenges The adoption and enforcement of building codes is considered the most effective tool in safeguarding lives and property against earthquakes. There would appear to be a vital regulatory role for government in the enforcement of building codes, but this is somewhat at odds with the neoliberal agenda of 'rolling back the state'. This paper explores constraints to the implementation of building codes in the context of changing roles and responsibilities of local authorities in Bihar in India. In-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders across major urban centres in north Bihar. Some factors, such as: code complexity; competition between the public and private sectors for qualified personnel; and low public risk perception were found to be less significant in Bihar than has been noted elsewhere, while other factors such as: the cost of earthquake-resistant measures; political interests; corrupt practices; and lack of government capacity were important. Additional factors were also revealed by the research, some of which are exacerbated by the neoliberal climate of urban governance. While the recent 2014 byelaws represent an improvement in the system and a degree of re-regulation, ambiguities create opportunities for failures arising from 'normalised irresponsibility'.ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

“…The hill community's marginalization as a subsistence economy has been attributed to the Indian government's policies that overtook the rights of small peasants in favor of big investors to promote capitalistic production (Banerjee- Guha, 2013;Gadgil & Guha, 1995;Randeria, 2007;Williams & Mawdsley, 2006). The loss of traditional rights of use over the forests threatened the very survival of the hill communities since they relied on its use values in order to meet their everyday needs.…”

Section: The Himalayan Hills: a Double Marginalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The educational potential of social economy projects in the Himalayas: the case of Avani

Sambhavi

Berghmans

Vandenabeele

2017

RELA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Postcolonial environmental justice: Government and governance in India

Cited by 96 publications

References 14 publications

Water marginalization at the urban fringe: environmental justice and urban political ecology across the North–South divide

Water marginalization at the urban fringe: environmental justice and urban political ecology across the North–South divide

Compliance with the building byelaws and earthquake safety in urban areas of Bihar: progress, constraints and challenges

The educational potential of social economy projects in the Himalayas: the case of Avani

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About