Browsing by Author "Brown, Phylicia Lee"

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    Divergent Residential Pathways from Flood-Prone Areas: How Neighborhood Inequalities Are Shaping Urban Climate Adaptation
    (2021) Elliott, James; Loughran, Kevin; Brown, Phylicia Lee; Department of Sociology
    Flood risks are rising across the United States, putting the economic and social values of growing numbers of homes at risk. In response, the federal government is funding the purchase and demolition of housing in areas of greatest jeopardy, tacitly promoting residential resettlement as a strategy of climate adaptation, especially in cities. Despite these developments, little is known about where people move when they engage in such resettlement or how answers to that question vary by the racial and economic status of their flood-prone neighborhoods. The present study begins to fill that gap. First, we introduce a new typology for classifying environmental resettlement along two socio-spatial dimensions of community attachment: (a) distance moved from one’s flood-prone home; and (b) average distance resettled from similarly relocated neighbors. Next, we analyze data from 1,572 homeowners who accepted government-funded buyouts across 39 neighborhood areas in Harris County, Texas – Houston’s urban core. Results indicate that homeowners from more privileged neighborhoods resettle closer to both their flood-prone homes and to one another, thus helping to preserve the social as well as economic value of home; whereas, homeowners from less privileged areas end up farther away from both. Implications for understanding social inequities in government-funded urban climate adaptation are discussed.
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    Toxic Industrial Air Pollution’s Links to Trust and Civic Engagement: A Nationwide Study of the Socioenvironmental Nature of Social Capital
    (2020-05-18) Brown, Phylicia Lee; Elliott, James R
    The present study conducts a nationwide study of the association of toxic industrial pollution and the facilities that produce it on trust and civic engagement. Data on pollution exposure come from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata (RSEI-GM) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) datasets for the years 1995 to 1999. Data on trust and civic engagement come from the 2000 restricted-access Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS). Statistical analyses indicate that exposures to more toxic air pollution associate negatively with various measures of trust and that increased numbers of TRI facilities associate negatively with various measures of civic engagement. The implication is that exposures to toxic industrial air pollution and the facilities that produce it not only adversely affect the physical health of nearby communities but also their social wellbeing, including underlying capacities for collective action.