The sister cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua form one of the largest manufacturing complexes in the world, and provide a unique context in which to examine transnational patterns of environmental injustice. In this paper, we explore residential patterns of environmental injustice related to the location of industrial facilities (ie maquiladoras and facilities regulated by the Toxics Release Inventory) in the El Paso–Juárez metropolis, taking a comparative approach. Our results indicate a striking injustice in the raw level of industrial hazard confronted by residents on the Mexican side of the border compared with those on the US side—a direct result of location within the global economy. In terms of multivariate spatial regression results, patterns of exposure to residential hazards diverged between the two cities. In Mexico, generally marginal neighborhoods (based on low social class and higher proportions of migrants to the city) were located farther away from industry, whereas they were located closer in the US. We explain these findings on the basis of sociospatial differences in urbanization, social marginality, and industrial development between El Paso and Juárez, which reflect the two cities' juxtaposition vis-à-vis global political–economic dynamics. Future research is needed to test relationships between social marginality and industrial hazards in transnational and Southern contexts to determine if similar or divergent patterns exist.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdeolaF O, 2000, “Cross-national environmental injustice and human rights issues—a review of evidence in the developing world”American Behavioral Scientist43686–706
BlackmanA, 2004, “Maquiladoras, air pollution and human health in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso”, in The Social Costs of Industrial Growth in Northern Mexico Ed. KopinakK (University of California San Diego Center for US–Mexican Studies, San Diego, CA) pp 179–204
7.
BlaikiePBrookfieldHAllenB, 1987Land Degradation and Society (Methuen, London)
8.
BolinBNelsonAHackettH EPijawkaDSmithC SSicotteDSadallaEMatrangaEO'DonnellM, 2002, “The ecology of technological risk in a Sunbelt cityEnvironment and Planning A34317–339
9.
BolinBGrineskiSCollinsT, 2005, “Geography of despair: environmental racism and the making of South Phoenix, Arizona, USA”Human Ecology Review12155–167
10.
BooneC G, 2002, “An assessment and explanation of environmental inequity in Baltimore”Urban Geography23581–595
11.
BooneC G, 2008, “Environmental justice as process and new avenues for research”Environmental Justice1149–154
12.
BrownP, 1995, “Race, class and environmental health: a review and systematization of the literature”Environmental Research6915–30
13.
BrownPCiambroneDHunterL, 1997, “Does ‘green’ mask grey? Environmental equity issues at the metropolitan level”International Journal of Contemporary Sociology134141–158
14.
BunkerS, 1985Underdeveloping the Amazon: Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State (University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL)
15.
BuzzelliMJerrettM, 2004, “Racial gradients in ambient air pollution exposure in Hamilton, Canada”Environment and Planning A361855–1876
16.
BuzzelliMJerrettMBurnettRFinklesteinN, 2003, “Spatiotemporal perspectives on air pollution and environmental justice in Hamilton, Canada, 1985–1996”Annals of the Association of American Geographers93557–573
17.
CarruthersD V, 2007, “Environmental justice and the politics of energy on the US–Mexico border”Environmental Politics16394–413
18.
CarruthersD V, 2008a, “Popular environmentalism and social justice in Latin America”, in Environmental Justice in Latin America: Problems, Promise and Practice Ed. CarruthersD V (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) pp 1–22
19.
CarruthersD V, 2008b, “Where local meets global: environmental justice on the US–Mexico border”, in Environmental Justice in Latin America: Problems, Promise and Practice Ed. CarruthersD V (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) pp 136–160
20.
ChakrabortyJ, 2009, “Automobiles, air toxics, and adverse health risks: environmental inequities in Tampa Bay, Florida”Annals of the Association of American Geographers99674–697
21.
CollinsT, 2008, “The political ecology of hazard vulnerability: marginalization, facilitation and the production of differential risk to urban wildfires in Arizona's White Mountains”Journal of Political Ecology1521–55
22.
CollinsT, 2009, “The production of unequal risk in hazardscapes: an explanatory frame applied to disaster at the US– Mexico border”Geoforum40589–601
23.
CollinsT, 2010, “Marginalization, facilitation, and the production of unequal risk: the 2006 Paso del Norte floods”Antipode42258–288
24.
CollinsTGrineskiS EFloresM I, 2008, “Environmental injustice in the Paso del Norte”Projections8156–171
25.
CollinsTGrineskiS ERomoL, 2009, “Vulnerability to environmental hazards in the Ciudad Juárez (Mexico)–El Paso (USA) metropolis: a model for spatial risk assessment in transnational context”Applied Geography29448–461
CorlissD, 2000, “Regulating the border environment: toxics, maquiladoras and the public right to know”, in Shared Space: Rethinking the US– Mexico Border Environment Ed. HerzogL A (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 295–312
DavisM, 1999The Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (Metropolitan, New York)
30.
DavisM, 2006Planet of the Slums (Verso, New York)
31.
DeOliveiraORobertsB, 1996, “Urban development and social inequality in Latin America”, in The Urban Transformation of the Developing World Ed. GuglerJ (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 253–314
32.
DowneyL, 2005, “Single mother families and industrial pollution in metropolitan America”Sociological Spectrum25651–675
33.
DowneyL, 2006a, “Environmental inequality in metropolitan America in 2000”Sociological Spectrum2621–41
34.
DowneyL, 2006b, “Environmental racial inequality in Detroit”Social Forces85771–796
35.
DowneyLHawkinsB, 2008, “Single-mother families and air pollution: a national study”Social Science Quarterly89523–536
FreyR S, 2003, “The transfer of core-based hazardous production processes to the export processing zones of the periphery: the maquiladora centers of Northern Mexico”Journal of World Systems ResearchIX317–354
GottdienerMHutchisonR, 2006The New Urban Sociology (Westview Press, Boulder, CO)
40.
GouldsonA, 2006, “Do firms adopt lower standards in poorer areas? Corporate social responsibility and environmental justice in the EU and the US”Area38402–412
41.
GrineskiS E, 2007, “Incorporating health outcomes into environmental justice research: the case of children's asthma and air pollution in Phoenix, Arizona”Environmental Hazards7360–371
42.
GrineskiS ECollinsT W, 2008, “Exploring environmental injustice in the Global South: maquiladoras in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico”Population and Environment29247–270
43.
GrineskiS EBolinBBooneC G, 2007, “Criteria air pollution and marginalized populations”Social Science Quarterly88535–554
44.
GrineskiS ECollinsT WRomoLAldouriR, 2010, “No safe place: environmental hazards and injustice along Mexico's northern border”Social Forces88(5) forthcoming
45.
GuhathakurtaSWichertM, 1998, “Who pays for growth in the City of Phoenix: an equity-based perspective on suburbanization”Urban Affairs Review33813–838
46.
HeymanJ, 2007, “Environmental issues at the US–Mexico border and the unequal territorialization of value”, in Rethinking Environmental History: World-stems History and Global Environmental Change Eds HornbergAMcNeillJ RMartinez-AlierJ (Altamira Press, New York) pp 327–343
47.
HeynenNPerkinsHRoyP, 2006, “The political ecology of uneven green space”Urban Affairs Review423–25
48.
JerrettMBurnettR TKanaroglouPBrookJ R, 2001, “A GIS–environmental justice analysis of particulate air pollution in Hamilton, Canada”Environment and Planning A33955–973
49.
KinghamSPearceJZawar-RezaP, 2007, “Driven to injustice? Environmental justice and vehicle pollution in Christchurch, New Zealand”Transportation Research Part D—Transport and Environment12254–263
50.
KopinakKBarajasM D R, 2002, “Too close for comfort? The proximity of industrial hazardous wastes to local populations in Tijuana, Baja California”Journal of Environment and Development11215–246
51.
LandryS MChakrabortyJ, 2009, “Street trees and equity: evaluating the spatial distribution of an urban amenity”Environment and Planning A412651–2670
52.
Lara-ValenciaFHarlowS DLemosM CDenmanC A, 2009, “Equity dimensions of hazardous waste generation in rapidly industrialising cities along the United States–Mexico border”Journal of Environmental Planning and Management52195–216
53.
LeikaufG DKlineSAlbertR EBaxterC SBernsteinD IBernsteinJBuncherC R, 1995, “Evaluation of a possible association of urban air toxics and asthma”Environmental Health Perspectives103253–271
54.
LivermanD MVaradyR GChavezOSanchezR, 1999, “Environmental issues along the United States–Mexico border: drivers of change and responses of citizens and institutions”Annual Review of Energy and Environment24607–643
55.
MennisJ L, 2005, “The distribution and enforcement of air polluting facilities in New Jersey”The Professional Geographer57411–422
56.
MeritzD, 2007, “Majority of El Pasoans say Asarco should be allowed to reopen”El Paso Times 28 October
57.
MitchellGDorlingD, 2003, “An environmental justice analysis of British air quality”Environment and Planning A35909–929
58.
MohaiPSahaR, 2006, “Reassessing racial and socioeconomic disparities in environmental justice research”Demography43383–399
59.
Morello-FroschR AWoodruffT JAxelradD ACaldwellJ C, 2000, “Air toxics and health risks in California: the public health implications of outdoor concentrations”Risk Analysis20273–291
60.
PastorMSaddJ LMorello-FroschR, 2002, “Who's minding the kids? Pollution, public schools, and environmental justice in Los Angeles”Social Science Quarterly83263–280
61.
PastorMSaddJ LMorello-FroschR, 2004, “Reading, writing, and toxics: children's health, academic performance, and environmental justice in Los Angeles”Environment and Planning C22271–290
62.
PastorMMorello-FroschRSaddJ L, 2005, “The air is always cleaner on the other side: race, space, and ambient air toxics exposures in California”Journal of Urban Affairs27127–148
63.
PastorMMorello-FroschRSaddJ L, 2006, “Breathless: schools, air toxics, and environmental justice in California”Policy Studies Journal34337–362
64.
PearceJKinghamSZawar-RezaP, 2006, “Every breath you take? Environmental justice and air pollution in Christchurch, New Zealand”Environment and Planning A38919–938
65.
PellowD N, 2007Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
66.
PeñaD, 1997The Terror of the Machine: Technology, Work, Gender, and Ecology on the U.S.– Mexico Border (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX)
67.
PulidoL, 2000, “Rethinking environmental racism: White privilege and urban development in Southern California”Annals of the Association of American Geographers9012–40
68.
QuinteroCRomoL, 2001, “Riesgos laborales en la maquiladora. La experiencia tamaulipeca”Revista Frontera Norte1311–46
69.
RobbinsP, 2004Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell, Malden, MA)
SanchezR A, 1987, “El problema de los desechos tóxicos industriales”Revista El Cotidiano164–68
72.
SanchezR A, 1990, “Health and environmental risks of the maquiladora in Mexicali”Natural Resources Journal130163–186
73.
SassenS, 2007A Sociology of Globalization (W W Norton, New York)
74.
SheppardELeitnerHMcMasterR BTianH, 1999, “GIS-based measures of environmental equity: exploring their sensitivity and significance”Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology918–28
75.
SicotteDSwansonS, 2007, “Whose risk in Philadelphia? Proximity to unequally hazardous facilities”Social Science Quarterly88515–534
76.
SpenerD, 2002, “The unraveling seam: NAFTA and the decline of the apparel industry in El Paso, TX”, in Free Trade and Uneven Development: The North American Apparel Industry after NAFTA Eds GereffiGSpenerDBairJ (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA) pp 139–160
77.
SzaszAMeuserM, 1997, “Environmental inequalities: literature review and proposals for new directions in research and theory”Current Sociology599–120
78.
TianoS, 2006, “The changing gender composition of the maquiladora workforce along the U.S.–Mexico border”, in Women and Change on the U.S.–Mexico Border: Mobility, Labor and Activism Eds MattinglyD LHansenE R (University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ) pp 73–90
