MS Thesis Defense | Zahrria Johnson

Environmental Justice Community Ontologies: Analyzing the Role of Geospatial Mapping Tools and Place-Based Narratives in Shaping Environmental Justice Discourses 

In the U.S., critical environmental justice (EJ) scholars have coalesced around the idea that race, rather than class or other identity markers, is the primary determinant of who experiences the brunt of environmental risk exposure. However, dominant U.S. environmental governance frameworks and institutions have been shown to favor more universal, race-neutral approaches to addressing EJ concerns. This thesis critically analyzes the role of governmental EJ screening and mapping tools in (re)shaping what constitutes environmental justice, revealing how methodological differences impact what communities are recognized as having claims to environmental justice. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews with members of an EJ community highlight divergent conceptual understandings of marginalized socio-spatial perceptions of environmental injustice that challenge and inform environmental justice discourses. This thesis asserts that state-based EJ initiatives must recognize environmental justice as context-specific, heterogenous, and often the result of plural legacies of injustice and cumulative burdens for environmental justice to be fully realized.