Spatiality and Environmental Justice in Parkdale (Toronto)

Abstract

Faisant partie d’un projet destiné à identifier les injustices environnementales au Canada, cet article définit une analyse critique de l’espace social afin de comprendre les problèmes de justice environnementale dans une communauté urbaine du Canada. Les injustices environnementales ayant un impact sur des situations géographiques particulières présentent un aspect spatial fixe et très apparent. Cependant, je soutiens qu’il est nécessaire d’avoir une plus large vue d’ensemble de la manière dont les politiques produisent et reproduisent l’espace, afin d’expliquer par quel moyen les manifestations spatiales des transformations politiques et économiques peuvent créer de nouvelles et vivaces injustices environnementales. Dans la première partie de cet article, je souligne quelques-unes des composantes-clés de la conception de la justice environnementale. Ensuite, à partir des travaux critiques élaborés dans le champ de la géographie humaine, en particulier ceux d’Edward Soja et de Henri Lefebvre, j’énumère les limites de l’approche usuelle de l’espace dans la littérature américaine sur la justice environnementale. La plus grande partie de cet article présente mes arguments en faveur d’une vision critique de l’espace social à partir des réflexions issues de mes recherches de terrain dans la communauté de Parkdale à Toronto.As part of the project to name environmental injustices in Canada, this article explores the significance of a critical analysis of social space to understand environmental justice problems in an urban Canadian community. Environmental injustices that impact on particular geographical locations have a readily apparent, fixed spatial aspect. However, I argue that a broader view to the politics of how space is produced and reproduced is necessary to explain the way in which the spatial manifestations of political economic transformations can create new and dynamic environmental injustices (Massey 1993). I at first outline some of the key components of the environmental justice perspective. Then, by drawing on critical work in the area of human geography, in particular Edward Soja’s (1996) and Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) work, I review the limitations of the dominant approach to spatiality in the American environmental justice literature. I then present my arguments in favour of a critical view to social space through a consideration of my field research findings in the Toronto community of Parkdale

Introduction: The Evolution of Environmental Justice Activism, Research, and Scholarship

“…Though it is beyond the scope of this article to review these, some will be mentioned here. andevidence of environmental racism in Canada~Agyeman et al, 2009;Teelucksingh, 2002Teelucksingh, , 2006 Environmental justice scholars critique traditional development discourses and use center-periphery theory to assess environmental practices in poor countries~Adeola, 2000; Agyeman, Bullard, and Evans, 2003;Escobar, 1995;Goodland, 1995;Guha, 2000;Hussein, 1995;Kokole, 1995;Pellow, 2007;Shiva, 1989;Steady, 1982Steady, , 1993Steady, , 2009Subramaniam, 2000!.…”

An environmental justice analysis of caribou recovery planning, protection of an Indigenous culture, and coal mining development in northeast British Columbia, Canada

“…Until recently, however, environmental justice has had a rather limited focus with regard to Indigenous peoples, with few studies in the context of those dependent upon land and natural resources within the northern regions of Canada (some of these studies include, e.g. : Draper and Mitchell 2001;Haluza-Delay 2007;Harter 2004;Jerret et al 1997;Mascarenhas 2007;McCurdy 1995;Page 2007;Teelucksingh 2002Teelucksingh , 2007Trainor et al 2007;Westra 2007;Whiteman 2004Whiteman , 2009Reed and George 2011). This is troubling, since Indigenous groups in Canada (referred to as First Nations), which have cultures based upon the land and natural resources found within their respective territories, are nationally at the lower end of nearly every social, economic, and health indicator (Booth and Skelton 2011;INAC 2010;Cooke et al 2004).…”

Multiple disconnections: environmental justice and Urban water in Canada and South Africa

“…Nonetheless, there are a variety of documented cases of environmental racism and injustice and there is the rhetoric and an emerging practice of an environmental justice movement in Canada (Jerrett et al 2001;Teelucksingh 2002;Warriner, McSpurren and Nalamba, 2001). We build on these insights in our analysis of Toronto but we must add that one of the most dominant ways in which justice and the environment have been associated in Canada is through the-often contradictory-defence of what is left of Canada's industrial (and resource) economy and welfare state.…”