Keywords
Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, Public Participation, Distribution, Recognition, and Radioactive Waste Disposal
Abstract
In this article I analyze American Indian claims made during the siting process for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. By utilizing the concepts of distribution and recognition (Fraser 2003) to analyze American Indian claims for financial compensation, cultural artifact/resource protection, and environmental justice I reveal the existence and extent of both objective and intersubjective obstacles preventing greater public participation in environmental decision-making. Through a textual/discourse analysis of public documents associated with the Yucca Mountain Project, my analysis demonstrates how distributive and recognitional injustices impede democratic participation in environmental decision-making, which contributes to the continuation of environmental inequality formation processes and environmental racism. Identifying the obstacles preventing greater democratic participation in cases such as the Yucca Mountain Project creates a starting point for theorizing and researching the applicability of “participatory action research” methods to complex decisions regarding technology and the environment.
Recommended Citation
Van Gerven, Jesse P..
2014.
"“It is Laced With Faults”: American Indians, Public Participation and the Politics of Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository."
Societies Without Borders
9 (2):
161-187.
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol9/iss2/4