The racial environmental state and abolition geography in California's Central Valley

Bibliographic Data

ID4476534
AuthorsKeith K Miyake (0000-0002-4129-5656, University of California Riverside, CA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume39
Issue4
Pages590-608
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/02637758211025985
OpenAlexW3173157785
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited22

This article introduces the "racial environmental state" as an analytical framework for examining race and environment as mutually constituting modes of state power. Under racial capitalism, the state relies on the constant articulation of racial and environmental difference and domination to sustain the uneven geographies necessary for capitalism. The racial environmental state offers a way to examine hegemonic state power operating through the convergences of race and environment, as a site for resistance, and the proliferation of abolition geographies. Using this framework, the author analyzes the abolitionist struggle to transform the carceral geographies of California's Central Valley through a campaign to stop the construction of a prison in Delano, California. This case study shows the importance of recognizing race and environment as interconnected systems of domination and resistance. It also highlights the possibilities and limitations of engaging the state in the abolitionist fight for freedom

Articulation (sociology · Capitalism · Criminology · Environmental justice · Hegemony · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Prison · Race (biology · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · State (computer science · American Environmental and Regional History · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Ecology

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