Far from heaven, Grounded on Earth: Environmental (In)justice in South Korea

Abstract

For years we have been developing several research projects in the field of environmental history, paying special attention to studies on environmental conflict. This look towards the resistance in defense of the territories, assumed by NGOs, researchers, academics but, in a special way, civil society that suffers the impact of industrial processes. The set of extractive activities carried out by industrial consortiums with the permissiveness of governments has consequences on the living and health conditions of the population as a whole. The historical processes of colonial appropriation of natural and energetic resources, at the service of a voracious capitalism or in its Chinese side, have turned each human activity into a new commodity. Extracting, Appropriating and Circulating energy and matter on a global scale has enormous consequences on the local population as well as on the structures of Metabolic Systems/Processes and sustainability on a global scale. Methodologically we use the tools provided by the EJOLT project (www.ejolt.org) to apply it in a decolonial key and proceed to apply the research in non-Eurocentric contexts. With this article we laid the foundations of research in the field of political ecology on environmental conflicts, putting as a novelty the application of research in the field of Asian studies, in its most innovative aspect as is the case of Korea.