Environmental justice and alliance building

[[abstract]]Flows and mobilities in globalization illustrate how environmental bads or burdens might move across local and national borders (e.g. exporting hazardous wastes and e-waste for treatment or disposal). The environmental justice movement's goal is to reverse the ecological burdens suffered by poor working-class families and people of colour. As elsewhere, there are emerging environmental justice issues in Taiwan. This paper examines environmental justice in the context nuclear waste controversies on Orchid Island in Taiwan and the possible networking of people who suffer from disproportionately environmental burdens in Southeast Asia. It provides the multiple understanding of environmental justice held by the Yami tribe and the Taiwanese groups, the barriers to a coalition for environmental justice and the emerging networking of indigenous peoples. It argues for the reconstruction of a broader community based on a sense of commonality in addressing environmental injustice. New forms of communities could emerge on the basis of communal concerns and common visions, rather than on solidarity which is exclusively in terms of ethnic and cultural identities or institutional structures. The paper concludes with suggestions for intercultural dialogue and alliance building for dealing with nuclear waste problems and building a more just society.[[sponsorship]]成功大學政治系[[conferencetype]]國內[[conferencedate]]20060427~20060428[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]臺南, 臺