Spatial and Environmental Injustice in an American Metropolis: A ...

the necessary instruments and policies to legally ensure, if not guarantee, equitable conditions among different socioeconomic groups living and working at multiple geographical scales, and it also implies that the goal of “just” or “fair” policies is to address the overlapping and interacting geographies of injustice through various programs of affirmative discrimination. In the context of this book, spatial justice also addresses the question as to whether or not all residents and communities living and working within Tampa Bay's built environment are, or indeed should be, equally vulnerable as a result of environmental policies and processes. Those vested with the money and power to produce and transform the material landscapes of Tampa Bay in the pursuit of their economic interests should be required by law to bear most, if not all, of the responsibility for ensuring that their actions do not produce or exacerbate environmental injustices.

Environmental and Spatial Injustices
in Tampa Bay

Research on spatial and environmental justice issues is conspicuous by its absence from an otherwise burgeoning scholarship on Tampa Bay, as mentioned earlier. In this context, the book develops a theoretical framework and research agenda to critically explore the challenges and opportunities for spatial and environmental justice in this metropolitan area. The gap in both academic scholarship and political and policy debates about the future of Tampa Bay is deepened by the fact that most of the current academic research tends to privilege the region's exposure to natural hazards, particularly floods and hurricanes, or highlight biophysical damage of one kind or another, such as the loss of wetlands, mangrove forests, salt marshes and sea grass beds, or native plant and animal species. As a consequence, insufficient