Failed advisory processes permanently suppress future civic engagement in communities

Evidence

Environmental justice activists have been less than satisfied with participation offered them by, for example, the EPA in its advisory committees on environmental justice. The National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) began as the EPA named environmental justice as a top priority early in the Clinton administration. Composed of stakeholders, many of whom had traditionally been ignored by the EPA, the NEJAC listened to hundreds of community members around the country give testimony on local environments. They passed numerous resolutions and gave the EPA much advice—but it was only an advisory body, and could not make policy. While many local and individual problems have been addressed via the NEJAC, numerous members have questioned its influence. One major participant called the NEJAC ‘a kind of federally sanctioned, formal mechanism for offering advice to EPA, which they generally don’t pay attention to’. This inauthenticity does not go unnoticed. A ‘place at the table’ will be welcomed, but will be seriously questioned if that participation does not result in a real change in the level and quality of community recognition in the development of environmental policy. Just because one is given some sort of ‘voice’ does not mean that they will be satisfied with a process that continues to deny them real results. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 708 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The demand for this type of authentic, community-based participation comes out of the experience of disenfranchisement—the combination of misrecognition and political exclusion. The lack of participation in environmental decision-making comes, in very large part, from the limitations of race, class, and gender. These present a range of structural obstacles—including less access to political, legal, scientific, economic, and other resources—to full participation in environmental decisions. Environmental justice groups often argue that the injustices they suffer come from a lack of oversight; the demand to counter this is not just a call for a recognition of the problem, but also a call for more thorough and participatory local input into, and control over, environmental decisions. Groups do not want others—either mainstream environmental groups or governmental agencies—simply saying that they will take care of the community’s interests; they wish to be consulted from the start, speak for themselves, work with a variety of other groups and agencies, and be offered a full partnership in the making of decisions. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 248 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Token advisory processes can serve as pretense for predetermined siting decisions; Racial mismatch between community and decision makers drives deliberative failure; Advisory participation that yields no policy power reads as inauthentic cooptation — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 708 (+1 more)

Related

• Misrecognition and political exclusion structurally block poor communities’ participation in environmental decisions (similarity 0.90)
• Token advisory processes can serve as pretense for predetermined siting decisions (similarity 0.88)
• Advisory participation that yields no policy power reads as inauthentic cooptation (similarity 0.86)
• Racial mismatch between community and decision makers drives deliberative failure (similarity 0.86)
• Advisory committees can coopt movements by serving as substitutes for direct action (similarity 0.86)
• Federal environmental justice institutions were built to institutionalize community participation procedures (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Advisory participation that yields no policy power reads as inauthentic cooptation #corroborates (0.85) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 708
• Racial mismatch between community and decision makers drives deliberative failure #corroborates (0.78)
• Misrecognition and political exclusion structurally block poor communities’ participation in environmental decisions #corroborates (0.75) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 248