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DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9901800305
© 1999 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Environmental Justice and the Sustainable City
Graham Haughton
As the debate on sustainable development and environmental justice has gathered momen tum, considerable attention has been paid to identifying key principles. In this paper, I highlight a number of core principles and then move on to examine differing styles of policy approach, which have gained favor among different sources, for moving toward the sustainable city from market-based neo- liberal reformism to deep green ecologically centered approaches. I highlight four broad categories of approach to sustainable urban development and begin linking those to the core principles of sustainable development.
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X03022004008
© 2003 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Bringing Local Knowledge into Environmental Decision Making
Improving Urban Planning for Communities at Risk
Jason Corburn
This article reveals how local knowledge can improve planning for communities facing the most serious environmental and health risks. These communities often draw on their firsthand experience-here called local knowledge-to challenge expert-lay distinctions. Community participation in environmental decisions is putting pressure on planners to find new ways of fusing the expertise of scientists with insights from the local knowledge of communities. Using interviews, primary texts, and ethnographic fieldwork, this article defines local knowledge, reveals how it differs from professional knowledge, and argues that local knowledge can improve planning in at least four ways (1) epistemology, adding to the knowledge base of environmental policy; (2) procedural democracy, including new and previously silenced voices; (3) effectiveness, providing low-cost policy solutions; and (4) distributive justice, highlighting inequitable distributions of environmental burdens.
Key Words: local knowledge • environmental health • community planning
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06288090
© 2006 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Just Planning
The Art of Situated Ethical Judgment
Heather Campbell
Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield.
The conceptualizations of justice that have most influenced recent debates in planning theory have focused on procedural concerns, while questions of value and the good have been regarded as problematic given a world of plurality and difference. This article argues that questions of value are an inescapable part of the activity of planning and hence its purpose is to identify the key dimensions of a reconceptualized notion of justice for planning. The argument is presented through consideration of two key themes: the relationship between the individual and the collective, and the notion of "reasonableness" in relation to matters of public policy related to planning. The implications of this analysis lead on to consideration of the scope of collective obligations and the nature of judgment and reasoning in planning. The article concludes by arguing that justice in planning is about situated ethical judgment- a conceptualization of justice that raises significant issues in relation to future developments in planning thought.
Key Words: justice • ethical judgment • planning theory
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9701600404
© 1997 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
A Model for Teaching Environmental Justice in a Planning Curriculum
R. O. Washington
Denise Strong
College of Urban and Public Affairs, University of New Orleans.
This article describes a course, Environmental Justice Movement, initiated at the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans in the spring of 1995. A companion to a course in environmental planning, the course was designed to prepare planning students to engage in the environmental policy debate by exposing them to its historical, moral, and technical dimensions. By examining strategies and tactics of planning practice, they learn to apply their analytic and research skills to appropriate advocacy, mediation, and community planning roles. The course seeks to connect the environmental justice movement with social movement theory, concepts of procedural justice, and advocacy and equity planning. It integrates propositions and concepts about the politics of planning, land use policies, and practices with political philosophy, populist beliefs and what Perry (1994) calls "the street-level Rawlsian approach."
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X03255431
© 2003 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Environmental Justice on the Streets
Advocacy Planning as a Tool to Contest Environmental Racism
Stacy Anne Harwood
Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign
This article argues that environmental racism should be broadened to include the maldistribution of beneficial environmental conditions and proposes that advocacy planning may be an effective way to address the spatial absence of beneficial environmental services and amenities. The article examines advocacy in the context of neighborhood improvement, specifically around the placement of a streetlight and stop sign. Neighborhood infrastructure and transportation planning are vital for safety and quality of life, especially for communities of color, yet planning at this level often revolves around physical aspects of the neighborhood with minimal attention paid to planning processes and outcomes likely to marginalize and even endanger communities. Through an examination of one municipality's neighborhood-based advocacy approach to neighborhood improvement, this article considers the opportunities and challenges in using advocacy planning as a strategy to promote environmental justice on the streets and sidewalks of distressed urban neighborhoods.
Key Words: environmental racism • neighborhood improvement • advocacy planning • environmental justice