Comments from the Special Issue Editor: The Emerging Dialogue on Environmental Justice

This special issue of Social Problems provides an interdisciplinary look at the relationship of class, ethnicity, gender, and race to community and workplace environmental problems. Drawing upon case studies, interviews, textual analysis, survey research, and household, com-munity, labor force, and policy data, these articles represent a methodologically eclectic ap-proach to the interpretation of environmental issues as problems of justice in a stratified society. While the disparate impact of social problems on minorities, women, and the poor has long been a central concern in sociology, few sociologists have focused their attention on the environment. A growing public awareness of pollution, toxic exposures, and resource limits has produced new social movements with implications for social theory and practice. A dialogue on environmental justice is emerging in community groups and in the network of national and international organizations which support them. This suggests the need for a parallel dialogue within the community of academics. The Concept of Environmental Justice In the first article, "The 'Environmental Justice ' Frame: A Conceptual Discussion and an Application, " Stella Capek locates the concept of environmental justice at the intersection of