Investigating Structural Barriers to Community Participation: A Political Ecology Analysis of Risk Reduction in Coastal Louisiana

Abstract

Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast is an ambitious policy suite directed at reducing coastal risk and building resilient communities in the midst of a coastal erosion crisis that threatens the ecological and economic future of the state. The plan aims to reduce risk coast-wide through a variety of projects aimed at building land, structural protections, and nonstructural risk reduction projects. The plan has nearly universal support at the institutional level, and projects are currently underway. This dissertation investigates the master plan from a political ecology perspective and asks key questions about how power relations influence the plan and its implementation. This study focuses on two key areas of political ecology: the macro level sociopolitical processes that influence local ecological governance decisions, and who has the authority to make and enforce these decisions. Specifically, this dissertation interrogates the plan’s approach to risk, vulnerability, and resilience; the extent to which local knowledge has been incorporated into the coastal planning process; and the barriers to grassroots mobilization for groups who oppose elements of the master plan. This study represents a uniquely sociological approach to political ecology through its consistent focus on the ways in which power operates through institutions in the coastal zone. The findings of this study show that on multiple dimensions, the State’s coastal planning process, while ambitious, has significant shortcomings in its ability to deliver risk reduction at the community level in a way that promotes environmentally just outcomes for vulnerable groups.