Underrepresented, underserved, understudied: why efforts to help disadvantaged communities are too little, too late

Abstract:

Disadvantaged communities suffer disproportionately from environmental and social injustice, even where there are investments for projects related to them. We analyze California bills, newspapers, and scientific publications to find out how well they represent and understand disadvantaged communities using low-resolution (theoretical) and high-resolution (interview-based) analyses. Disadvantaged communities are overwhelmingly underrepresented: about one in four Californians live in them, but only one in two thousand news and scientific publications talk about them; legislation represents them less poorly (ratio 1:50), but measures are not sufficiently effective to solve their problems. While low-resolution frameworks are useful to identify large-scale problems, it is necessary to disaggregate specific issues to understand how they are intertwined. Current efforts are helpful but not enough: newspapers must better represent disadvantaged communities to raise awareness and give them political leverage; legislators must better serve them by understanding specific problems and solve extreme inequity; and scientists must stop assuming what problems disadvantaged communities have, and go there to study those problems in first hand.