Environment

NEW PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE IN JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS

Subjectivities of broken windows: Assessing the relationship among crime perceptions, sociodemographic factors, and built environment on neighborhood vacancy perceptions in New Orleans

In this paper, we use binary logistic regression to investigate whether physical vacancy perceptions are associated with sociodemographic factors, neighborhood-level built environment characteristics, and different perceptions of crime (i.e., level of crime generally; predominance of property crime versus violent crime; changing magnitude of crime over time).

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: Research that Assesses Experiments in Nature-based Solutions Across California

Experiments in nature-based solutions: pursuing conservation, climate action, and land use planning in California

Nature-based solutions that include conservation are an increasingly important arena for advancing climate action. Conservation planning decisions can depend on what kinds of tradeoffs are made and which benefits need to be prioritized. What then does local implementation look like when governance of land use planning tradeoffs is confronted by potentially competing priorities in climate, nature, and development?

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: Research that Evaluates Distributive Justice Actions in Cities' Adaptation Planning

An evaluation of US cities’ efforts to further distributive justice in climate adaptation planning

Cities are increasingly pursuing sustainability efforts to create inclusive, safe, and climate resilient places. However, there is evidence that emerging climate adaptation actions in cities—whether intentionally or unintentionally—are contributing to widening socioeconomic inequalities. Scholars of climate urbanism have responded to this challenge by calling for efforts to tackle underlying injustices.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: Advancing climate justice through community-engaged research

Advancing Climate Justice Research

The purpose of this research is to develop and pilot a feminist informed community based participatory action research approach (f-CBPAR) to examine injustice. CBPAR is a collaborative approach between researchers and community members throughout the research process. F-CBPAR draws on both feminist theory and CBPAR literatures to identify power arrangements that contribute to environmental injustice.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: The Socio-Ecological Niche

The Socio-Ecological Niche

Ecologists recognise that we live on an increasingly human-dominated planet, yet most of the field's foundational concepts remain essentially biophysical, with little reference to human society. There are few better examples of this divide between ecological and social theory than the niche concept. During its century-long history, the niche concept has been defined in many ways, including to describe the ecological roles of humans. To date, however, it has not incorporated human influences into its various descriptions of other species' ecological roles.

NEW PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE: After Katrina: Disaster and intimate partner violence research

New Disaster Research

In this commentary for the special issue on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we trace where the field of disaster and intimate partner violence (IPV) research has gone since to guide future directions. Research on and after Hurricane Katrina opened the door for the study of the unique effects of disaster on IPV prevalence, characteristics, and interventions.

NEW PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLE: Institutional Designs for Procedural Justice and Inclusion in Urban Climate Change Adaptation

Planning for Justice

Although there is broad consensus that more inclusive approaches are needed in climate adaptation planning, it is unclear how cities should redesign rules, institutions, and decision-making processes to produce more equitable forms of participation and engagement. This paper evaluates different planning procedures and institutional arrangements across twenty-five U.S. cities. Although arrangements are context-specific, institutional designs fall into three categories: consultative partnerships, strategic collaborations, and expansive co-governance arrangements.

NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE ALERT: Critical Environmental Injustice and the Distribution of Toxics

Critical Environmental Justice and Toxics

Environmental justice research has focused on the distribution of environmental inequalities, such as proximity to landfills, across the U.S. and globally. Background: Public health research and environmental health research, specifically, have focused on toxic exposure—encompassing individuals or communities that are disproportionately exposed to contaminants that are harmful or potentially harmful to them.