Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Community Responses to Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this Dissertation is to determine why different communities respond with varying levels and types of activism when faced with an identical environmental grievance. The project also helps to explain how activism relates to environmental policy outcomes. The first phase of this project is a quantitative study of the twenty-two communities that faced a low- level radioactive waste disposal site proposal. This phase provides for a statistical test of a wide range of factors for the entire population of cases. The design considers independent variables such as the different legal and policy arrangements across the range of cases, various demographic characteristics (including race and income), as well as key elements of social movement theory (mobilizing structures, framing processes, and political opportunity structures). The quantitative study also provides an inductive context for the case selection in the subsequent qualitative phase. This second phase consists of carefully selected cases that are used to gain insight into the social mechanisms and processes that connect the objective conditions identified in the first phase. This project speaks to the policy process of siting dangerous waste disposal facilities. For the past twenty years the US has largely failed to implement disposal solutions for the increasing production of dangerous waste products. The findings of this project will address key questions about the implementation progress of siting efforts and the role that community responses may have played in this process. This information will be relevant for policymakers at all levels of government as well as the local communities and activist groups that face siting decisions. Second, this project provides a detailed environmental justice analysis. Rather than focusing merely on the distribution of environmental outcomes, the findings of this project will speak to the role that race and income play in the process that precedes site construction. Finally, this project is a comprehensive application of the political process approach to social movement activity. The research design operationalizes and tests the key concepts of social movement theory including: framing, mobilizing structures, and political opportunity structures. The qualitative study will add to social movement research by examining the mechanisms and processes that make these traditional elements of social movement theory work.