Community-based activism within an environmental justice frame: The siting of a waste-to-energy facility in Flint-Genesee County.

Abstract

This research examined the environmental justice frame and other factors that influence community-based activism regarding the proximal siting of a waste-to-energy facility in the Flint-Genesee County area in the State of Michigan. With the growing number of grassroots environmental justice organizations and their leaders incorporating more action-focused strategies to reduce and eliminate environmental stress on minority and/or low-income communities, it is important to understand the mechanisms that generate community-based activism. Using three (3) qualitative methods---focus groups, group interviews, and individual interviews---this study provides an overview of what kind of people get involved, why they get involved, and what factors help to enhance or detract citizen participation in activities against a localized waste facility siting. Twenty-three (23) local activists participated in one or more inquiry sessions designed to assess their awareness of local environmental justice issues and determine the factors that influence environmental justice activism. The findings suggest that the concept of environmental justice fit into the ideological frame and activist behavior of at least one-third (35%) of the participant activists. These participant activists were more knowledgeable and articulate about the environmental justice frame than the other study participants. In addition, activist profiles in individual interviews (8) expressed significant leadership traits that were actualized through the theoretical constructs---issue awareness, environmental concern, environmental grievances, and injustice framing. Several of the participant activists (4) were influential in a law-suit against the State of Michigan's site permitting process. Their introduction of an environmental justice frame to the litigation process may have influenced a favorable court ruling and demonstrated that a small number of committed and skilled community activists can be highly effective. Overall, environmental problems are not the top priority for the majority of the residents in the area since they have myriad social, political, and economic issues to contend with in their respective communities. However, while there is widespread non-participation in targeted communities, it is likely that the core leadership comes from long-term activism backgrounds. The resultant community awareness, attitudes, and behaviors documented in this research reveal some of the inner complexities of sustaining the environmental justice movement.