The two faces of environmental justice: Lessons from the eco‐nationalist phenomenon

Abstract

This article considers the rapid proliferation of environmental justice movements around the globe over the past decade and the implications of this phenomenon for both improved environmental protection and sociopolitical stability at the domestic and inter‐state levels. While numerous scholars have pointed to the mobilisational benefits of linking environmental goals to subgroup identity and social justice, this article uses a broad cross‐country comparison to examine: (1) the long‐term viability of the environment‐social justice alliance; and (2) the potentially divisive consequences of the environmental justice frame. Not only does this study reveal an instrumental ‐ and thus possibly short term ‐ aspect to the merger of these two very distinct causes and discourses, but it also indicates that under certain conditions the framing of environmental issues in terms of social justice may reinforce racial, ethnic, or other pre‐existing cleavages and increase the potential for conflict at both the domestic and inter‐state levels. Through an in‐depth comparison of environmental justice and eco‐nationalist movements in the first, second, and third worlds, this study highlights both the observed environmental and social benefits of framing environmental issues in terms of social justice and identity while simultaneously probing the resilience of the alliance between the two causes and the potential tradeoffs associated with the possible intensification of racial, ethnic, or other identity cleavages in society.