Considering the Role of Social Work Research in Addressing Contemporary Environmental Justice Challenges Impacting Youth and Communities

In order to achieve the 2017 SSWR conference goal of “ensuring healthy development for all youth”, there are few things more necessary than environmental justice for all.  Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (U.S. EPA, 2012).

In recognition of the importance of built and natural environments--as well as disparities in environmental health impacts--the profession of Social Work has called for the development of “innovative strategies to anticipate, mitigate, and respond to the social and human dimensions of environmental challenges” as part of the Grand Challenges (Kemp & Palinkas, 2015).  This roundtable aims to address this challenge by bringing together social work scholars and activists whose work informs our understanding of the mechanisms that produce unequal environmental impacts, as well as practice methods that support local resistance, planning, and sustainable development.

To begin a discourse around avenues through which social work research can situate itself at the core of environmental justice promotion, the roundtable will feature three presenters who will each describe a contemporary case in which environmental impacts were passed along to groups who are poor and marginalized, particularly children.  First, we will examine the case of lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan. A presenter will emphasize policy decisions that gave rise to unsafe drinking water and lead poisoning among children, as well as local resistance.  Second, we will introduce the case of water shutoffs in Detroit, Michigan and the local response to distribute water while also engaging outside allies including the United Nations. Third, we shift our focus from urban rustbelt cities to rural Appalachia where we link the impacts of strip mining and its relationship to residents’ health and well-being to local organizing against corporate-driven disposal of coal combustion by-product in rivers and landfills on the margins of urban centers in central Virginia. Finally, we take on the politics of hydrofracking in Oklahoma and discuss how poor rural and also indigenous communities have organized to prevent fracking and / or to mitigate its impacts.  Following these brief overviews, we will leave time to ask participants to discuss their own experiences with environmental injustice.  Specifically, we will ask:

• When comparing the causes and consequences of each case (those of the presenters as well as participants), what are some patterns inherent within them?    

• How are local residents and stakeholders organizing to mitigate harm or to prevent future exploitation of the land, water, and people?

• What role can and should social work researchers and practitioners play in addressing these challenges?

By considering commonalities among the cases, we expect that new insight and opportunities for collaboration will emerge.  Our goal is to stimulate thought and conversation that will light a way for social work in reestablishing its role in solving the extensive set of problems brought about by the persistence of environmental injustices across the country.