Ch 2: The Sustainability Discourse and Sustainable Communities

I chose to read Chapter 2 in Agyeman because after reading several chapter introductions I felt this chapter would give the most comprehensive look at EJ and sustainable communities, it included a case study and ended by looking at policy tools. It is important to bring EJ into our discourse because as Agyeman points out, EJ is often left out of broader definitions of sustainability. Agyeman differentiates between environmental sustainability and just sustainability, making an important argument that, as we have read, sustainability is not only about natural resources and conservation, but also about the health and well-being of all inhabitants in our cities. A criticism that is often leveled at the sustainability movement is that it does not address issues of social justice as much as its "primary concern is the efficient use of natural resources within a capitalist framework." (p. 40). Agyeman echoes some of our class discussion acknowledging that the we know scientifically what we need to do but in many cases we lack the tools for implementation. As a relative newcomer to the sustainability movement I was particularly intrigued by Agyeman's summary of the international commitment to sustainability as early as 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (Agenda 21).
I was also unaware and impressed (and then depressed) by his comparison of the Clinton-Gore President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) to the Bush administration's Working for a Sustainable World. While the Clinton-Gore PCSD emphasized domestic policy and the need for America to collaborate internationally, the Bush agenda has been to support sustainability in other countries but to ignore any significant change on the part of the world's biggest polluter.
Agyeman's summary of effective policy in US cities is worth reading in Chapter 2, but I will not summarize it here (pp. 58-61).
The chapter ends with a comparison of narrow-focus and broad-focus civic environmentalism. Agyeman makes the interesting point that broad-focus environmentalism leaves an opeing of coalition building that can include EJ in the sustainability movement because it provides a more holistic approach to environmentalism that is more systems based as opposed to project based.
Although Agyeman states that we know scientifically what to do to implement sustainability, "we just need to do it", his arguments about the importance of just sustainability show that perhaps we should spend more time focusing on how our definition can be more encompassing, also ensuring that when we undertake policy changes we are always mindful of EJ. I am not familiar enough with the EJ movement, nor with Agyeman's expansion on this point in other chapters but it seems to me that energy needs to be focused on addressing those who have historically been disadvantaged. I must say that I noticed myself thinking, "instead of in my community" and that I need to expand my idea of community to be more encompassing. I'm thinking about this a lot as I work on my social goals in my journal.