Environmental Justice Framework Research Articles

Selective Attention to Environmental Justice by International Cooperative Initiatives for Biodiversity and Climate

Abstract The relevance of environmental justice in global biodiversity and climate governance has increased as stakeholders’ unequal affectedness by environmental action is becoming ever more obvious. International Cooperative Initiatives (ICIs) play an ever increasing role in addressing global environmental change and biodiversity loss. Yet, the consideration of demands of environmental justice by these non-state or hybrid actors is still under-explored. Informed by a three-pillar environmental justice framework comprising distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, we use content analysis to identify if and how these different pillars are presented on the websites and in the key publications of a sample of 53 ICIs. A majority of these ICIs include references to environmental justice and its different pillars in their description of their work. But environmental justice seems to be neither a central concern nor are the references very nuanced. Distributive justice receives the most attention, whereas aspects of procedural and recognition justice receive less attention. To better anchor environmental justice within global biodiversity and climate governance, we encourage ICIs to thoroughly integrate environmental justice in operational work and to integrate and establish ongoing dialogues with marginalised groups.

Rawlsian Anti-Capitalist Environmental Justice

In this paper, I examine John Rawls’ claim in the first edition of A Theory of Justice that Justice as Fairness cannot include considerations about the environment and non-human animals. The paper aims to resolve the tension in this statement, as the idea of a Rawlsian well-ordered society without concern for the rest of nature presents as a contradiction. Through a more charitable reading of Rawlsian theory that borrows from anti-capitalist and environmental justice frameworks, we can see how Rawlsian justice connects tightly to these issues. I conclude that the Rawlsian well-ordered society must be committed to anti-capitalist environmental justice.

A Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Trump and Biden's Climate Change Speeches: Framing Strategies in Politics

This article analyzes the speeches of two U.S. politicians—President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden—to present how they make their arguments about climate change using various frames. While frames are rhetorical acts, they are also a form of persuasion. In particular, the author demonstrates how Trump foregrounded negative frames with fear-inducing elements. He presented job losses and economic harm as consequences of joining the Paris Climate Accord, putting him on the defensive. In contrast, Biden utilized positive frames to strengthen his arguments and aligned more closely with the environmental justice framework. Inspired by the rhetoric of the framing strategies employed by these two speakers, the study suggests that technical communicators should focus on using language that constructs new frames to enhance the success of their argumentations.

Environmental justice and human well-being bundles in protected areas: An assessment in Campo Ma'an landscape, Cameroon

Justice and human well-being are increasingly used as key considerations when assessing the socio-economic impacts and trade-offs associated with forest conservation on local and indigenous populations. This paper incorporates environmental justice framework and human well-being bundles to get a more comprehensive understanding of the social-economic impacts of forest conservation. Through household surveys, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews in three villages adjacent to the Campo Ma'an National Park (CMNP) in Cameroon, we examine how the creation of the national park amidst expanding large-scale commodity plantations affects perceptions of well-being bundles and justice among local and indigenous communities. Specifically, we look at how the establishment of CMNP influences forest-dependent people's freedom to access forest resources, food sufficiency, health, security, social relationships, life satisfaction, and perception of fairness in benefit distribution, participation and recognition. The results reveal a concerning state of relatively low well-being evaluation and diminished perception of justice among local populations which, we argue, lead to a deterioration of overall capabilities among local and indigenous communities. The lack of sense of justice was associated with the loss of freedom in accessing common resources, hindered cultural-spiritual practices, lack of compensation, and unresolved human-wildlife conflicts. Comparative analysis reveals variations in well-being bundles among the three communities, influenced by various factors such as the different histories of displacement and law enforcement, ethnicity, level of dependence towards forest resources, external NGO support, and the expansion of extractive industries in the area. Reflecting on these findings, this study offers insights into how justice and human well-being can be more integrated into the process of co-constructing and re-imagining future interventions aimed at improving the quality of life of local communities and promoting sustainability goals in Cameroon and beyond.

Exploring the relationship between plural values of nature, human well‐being, and conservation and development intervention: Why it matters and how to do it?

Abstract Globally, land and seascapes across the bioculturally diverse tropics are in transition. Impacted by the demands of distant consumers, the processes of global environmental change and numerous interventions seeking climate, conservation and development goals, these transitions have the potential to impact the relationships and plurality of values held between people and place. This paper is a Synthesis of seven empirical studies within the Special Feature (SF): ‘What is lost in transition? Capturing the impacts of conservation and development interventions on relational values and human wellbeing in the tropics’. Through two Open Forum workshops, and critical review, contributing authors explored emergent properties across the papers of the SF. Six core themes were identified and are subsumed within broad categories of: (i) the problem of reconciling scale and complexity, (ii) key challenges to be overcome for more plural understanding of social dimensions of landscape change and (iii) ways forward: the potential of an environmental justice framework, and a practical overview of methods available to do so. The Synthesis interprets disparate fields and complex academic work on relational values, human well‐being and de‐colonial approaches in impact appraisal. It offers a practical and actionable catalogue of methods for plural valuation in the field, and reflects on their combinations, strengths and weaknesses. The research contribution is policy relevant because it builds the case for why a more plural approach in intervention design and evaluation is essential for achieving more just and sustainable futures, and highlights some of the key actions points deemed necessary to achieve such a transition to conventional practice. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Mutual Aid as a Praxis for Critical Environmental Justice: Lessons from W.E.B. Du Bois, Critical Theoretical Perspectives, and Mobilising Collective Care in Disasters

AbstractWe build on the critical environmental justice (CEJ) framework by exploring mutual aid as a means of practising and realising transformative environmental justice that allows activists to build environmentally resilient and just communities beyond the state. We draw on the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, the Black Radical Tradition, and other critical approaches to demonstrate how mutual aid offers a meaningful point of conjunction for uniting ideological approaches to environmental justice that are often understood as being at odds with one another. To demonstrate this in action, we provide brief examples on the proliferation and longevity of mutual aid in times of disaster, including the 1927 Mississippi floods, Hurricane Katrina, the Nashville tornados, and the Texas power outages. Through these accounts, we seek to demonstrate how environmental justice organisations can and have advanced collective liberation using mutual aid as a critical orientation rooted in community based care and empowerment.

Tourism and ecological restoration across borders: a political ecology approach

ABSTRACT This study uses political ecology and social and environmental justice frameworks to examine stakeholder attitudes towards tourism development and ecological restoration in a cross-border context. The purpose of this paper is to develop conceptual frameworks for understanding stakeholder attitudes towards cross-border tourism and ecological restoration that occur in the context of uneven power relations. Data were collected through personal observations, secondary sources such as legal documents and reports, and 56 in-depth interviews and two focus groups with tourism and conservation stakeholders from the US-Mexico border. The findings revealed how abundant social and environmental justice issues, such as unequal social and ecological mobility, access to resources, and power relations impact stakeholder attitudes. This study offers a new conceptual framework that considers socioeconomic, cultural, and religious/spiritual ties to a border landscape, aimed at understanding the injustices related to stakeholder in tourism development and ecological restoration initiatives. The equitable distribution of benefits derived from tourism and landscape restoration is further emphasized in the conceptual framework, as is the need for expanding social and ecological mobility. The paper contributes to the political ecology of cross-border tourism destinations by augmenting social and ecological mobility as a critical component of developing nature-based tourism in border areas.

Challenging the capability approach in the context of environmental, ecological and multispecies justice

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the challenges in applying Nussbaum’s capability approach to animals, as refracted through the lens of environmental justice (justice among humans on environmental issues and risks) and ecological justice (justice to non-human nature) in Schlosberg’s sense. Comparing and contrasting intra- and intergenerational justice for animals within the environmental and ecological justice frameworks, I demonstrate why capabilities-based multispecies justice can provide some benefits in overcoming ecological vulnerability. In this context, I point out the methodological pitfalls that environmental and ecological justice face in their attempts at eradicating unequal vulnerabilities embedded into some either-or dilemmas by exploring how the vulnerabilities in question negatively affect animals’ positive and negative rights.

Environmental Justice in the Urban Landscape

Environmental justice is a crucial subfield within environmental politics. Environmental justice studies have often been focussed on sites of natural disasters; however, more recently the scope of environmental justice study has been expanded to include environmental justice in urban locations. First, this paper contains a literature review of prominent scholarly articles within the field of environmental justice, including historical examples of environmentally unjust policies, and the factors influencing environmental injustice. Next, this paper examines case studies of environmental hazards within North America. Finally, this paper makes policy recommendations to mitigate environmental injustice through a Canadian federal context such as mandating the creation of environmental justice assessments, in the Canadian provincial context, by encouraging the creation of an environmental justice framework, as well as through a municipal context, by encouraging the creation of an environmental justice assessment to create equity within city planning.

The (ecologically) imperial mode of sport at the exterminist stage of capitalism: Counter stories of Dakar Rally's ride in South America (2009–2019)

This paper explores the voices of resistance against the Dakar Rally's decade-long operation in South America. Drawing upon the three-prong framework of environmental justice (EJ), the analysis showcases how the less powerful stakeholders in the hosting countries articulated the deleterious consequences caused by the event to the local communities and ecologies. Moreover, by situating the Dakar Rally's expeditions in South America within the global capitalist economy, the paper explains why the most prestigious car rally is an exemplary manifestation of ecological imperialism, as it is not only a showcase of unsustainable industries (represented by fossil-fuel vehicles) with European colonial hubris but also a newer stage of an ongoing centuries-old process of extracting ecological resources from the Global South to benefit the increasingly mobile, vampire-like transnational capital.

What Does Chelsea Creek Do for You? A Relational Approach to Environmental Justice Communication

Historically, academic and government environmental justice (EJ) research and communication efforts have centered on quantifying, mapping, and visualizing the environmental harms faced by EJ communities (communities facing disproportionate levels of environmental harm). Unangax Education scholar Eve Tuck critiques such frameworks as “damage-centered” because they cast entire communities—predominantly low-income, BIPOC communities—as lacking or lesser. In this case study, we identify three core pitfalls of damage-centered research in government agency EJ projects—reification, obfuscation, and discretization—through our analysis of two important U.S. federal EJ data tools and related policies: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s EJSCREEN, and the recently unveiled Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). We center our study on the depiction of the Chelsea Creek Region in Massachusetts. In response, we describe preliminary research on an alternative approach to communicating EJ issues based on a relational rather than damage-centered EJ framework that advances relationships as the fundamental unit of both analysis and redress—in this case the Greater Boston region's relationship to and responsibility for ongoing environmental harms in the Chelsea Creek region.

Critical Environmental Justice and Pandemic Events: Florida Farm Work during COVID-19

Extant research has well established that exposure to infectious disease can be a significant problem for vulnerable populations that have been deemed “essential” during widespread health crises. We contribute to this growing body of literature by delineating the utility of the critical environmental justice (CEJ) framework for investigating infectious disease in the context of at-risk groups such as farmworker communities. Specifically, we highlight how the four pillars of CEJ are applicable to potential or real exposure to pathogens in farmworkers' living and working spaces, and how responses and support for these essential workers can be shaped by intersectional factors, the “expendability” of farmworkers, and broader state and corporate structural influences. We draw from a case study of Florida farmworker outreach professionals to center the perceptions and experiences of individuals working directly with farmworker communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude with a discussion of how our research contributes to the broader understanding of CEJ in the context of widespread health threats, as well as an overview of lessons learned for regulatory and health agencies.

Review: Tainted Tap: Flint’s Journey from Crisis to Recovery, by Katrinell M. Davis

Review: <i>Tainted Tap: Flint’s Journey from Crisis to Recovery</i>, by Katrinell M. Davis

Beauty Inside Out: Examining Beauty Product Use Among Diverse Women and Femme-Identifying Individuals in Northern Manhattan and South Bronx Through an Environmental Justice Framework.

The disproportionate use of chemical straighteners and skin lighteners by women of color is a growing public health concern given the link between product use and adverse health effects. Prior studies examined product use as an individual choice but neglected social-structural factors, which influence beauty perceptions and personal decisions around product use. We used a community-based participatory research approach to characterize product use by demographics and investigated how racialized beauty norms impact use among 297 women and femme-identifying individuals in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. Product use varied by race/ethnicity, nativity, and messaging from family and peers. Black respondents were more likely to ever use chemical straighteners than non-Black respondents (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.2-3.2), as were respondents who heard that family members express a preference for straight hair compared with respondents whose family members expressed mixed preferences about hairstyles (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.1-3.7). Compared with non-Asian respondents and respondents born in the United States, Asian respondents and respondents born in other countries, respectively, had threefold higher odds of ever using skin lighteners (Asian: OR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.4-7.0; born in other countries: OR = 3.4; 95% CI = 1.9-6.1). Respondents' perceptions that others believe straight hair or lighter skin confer benefits such as beauty, professionalism, or youth were associated with greater use of chemical straighteners and skin lighteners. These findings highlight the pervasiveness of racialized beauty norms and point to the need to reduce the demand for and sale of these products through community education, market-based strategies, and public policy.

Differential equity in access to public and private coastal infrastructure in the Southeastern United States.

Despite the ubiquity of coastal infrastructure, it is unclear what factors drive its placement, particularly for water access infrastructure (WAI) that facilitates entry to coastal ecosystems such as docks, piers, and boat landings. The placement of WAI has both ecological and social dimensions, and certain segments of coastal populations may have differential access to water. In this study, we used an environmental justice framework to assess how public and private WAI in South Carolina, USA are distributed with respect to race and income. Using publicly available data from State agencies and the US Census Bureau, we mapped the distribution of these structures across the 301 km of the South Carolina coast. Using spatially explicit analyses with high resolution, we found that census block groups (CBGs) with lower income are more likely to contain public WAI, but racial composition has no effect. Private docks showed the opposite trends, as the abundance of docks is significantly, positively correlated with CBGs that have greater percentages of White residents, while income has no effect. We contend that the racially unequal distribution of docks is likely a consequence of the legacy of Black land loss, especially of waterfront property, throughout the coastal southeast during the past half-century. Knowledge of racially uneven distribution of WAI can guide public policy to rectify this imbalance and support advocacy organizations working to promote public water access. Our work also points to the importance of considering race in ecological research, as the spatial distribution of coastal infrastructure directly affects ecosystems through the structures themselves and regulates which groups access water and what activities they can engage in at those sites.

Exploring environmenATL justice and data analytics in an environmental studies lab course.

The environmental studies laboratory is an exciting place where students investigate, analyze, and reflect. Students test and apply theories and make abstract concepts concrete. As an example, ecology and environmental science are increasingly using "big data" to expand and refine research questions. This commentary reflects on the design and integration of an environmental justice and data analytics module in an environmental studies lab course. The module introduces an environmental justice framework to give students an understanding of tools and strategies to engage, assess, and intervene at multiple levels; while also developing advocacy and communication skills. Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionally from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to "redlining" and the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this module challenges students to critically examine redlining, socioeconomic, and environmental factors in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) to develop and explore research questions that may visually and/or statistically illuminate trends, patterns, and processes of environmenATL justice. This module also introduces some of the basic data handling and data analysis skills that give students an understanding of data types, descriptive statistics, sampling, and basic inferential statistics. By intentionally incorporating environmental justice activities and conversations in the classroom, instructors afford students an opportunity to engage in authentic examination of their world and make positive changes. Many of the skills learned and knowledge gained in this activity are directly transferable to post-baccalaureate studies (e.g., graduate school, medical school, professional training, etc.) and the world of employment. The module can also be adapted to various curriculum, courses, and communities.

토픽 모델링을 활용한 국내외 정의로운 전환 연구동향 비교분석

Just transition originates from the labor movement urging to protect fossil fuel workers from the impact of low-carbon transition policies. It has evolved to address an integrated framework of climate, energy, and environmental justice during the transition to a low/zero-carbon society. Recent years have seen a rapid boom surrounding the theorization of just transition. However, relatively few studies have examined how the concept of just transition is applied to research across academic disciplines or under what research agenda just transition would encompass different concerns addressed by environmental, climate, and energy justice scholarship. Against this backdrop, this article sets out to investigate the main topics being discussed in just transition and climate-energy-environmental justice literature, and the similarities and differences between the global and Korean scholarship using topic modeling. The results demonstrate that city and local transitions have emerged as key topics while the focus of scholarly debates has shifted from regional pollution to global sustainability issues in the foreign literature after the Paris Agreement. In the Korean literature, institution-related topics rapidly increased after 2008, wherein green growth strategies were introduced. Yet, local issues, industry and jobs replaced these topics after the Paris Agreement. By comparing the results, the article draws implications for Korean scholarship to better understand just transition as an integrated framework of climate, energy, and environmental justice.

Layered Sites of Environmental Justice: Considering the Case of Prisons*

A growing body of scholarship highlights the merits of fusing green criminology and environmental justice frameworks to better understand intersections among carceral systems, race‐ and class‐based stratification, and environmental harm. This paper explores how correctional institutions (CIs) with known histories of federal environmental law violations compare against other previously established environmentally harmful facilities and land uses. In this article, we ask: are prisons and other CIs that have violated federal environmental laws located proximate to areas where there is evidence of existing high‐pollution facilities? Relatedly, are CIs that have established noncompliant histories with federal environmental laws located in similarly marginalized and disadvantaged communities compared to other traditionally defined sites of environmental injustice and harm? To answer these questions, we utilize data from the EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database. Our findings provide evidence that, within our sample of facilities that have recorded noncompliance with federal environmental laws, CIs are significantly more likely to be located proximate to Superfund sites than most of the other facility types/land uses and more likely to be located in communities with racially minoritized populations. Our findings have important implications for further research on carceral systems and environmental justice.

SDG-11 and smart cities: Contradictions and overlaps between social and environmental justice research agendas.

There is an increased role Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plays in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses specifically on SDG-11 "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable" and how cities are increasingly incorporating ICT toward this goal. The public discourse on Smart Cities suggests economic, social and environmental benefits are possible through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). However, the increased deployment and use of digital infrastructure and processes in the name of sustainability and optimization itself is the focus of a growing body of critical literature on Smart Cities. This mini-review collates critical literature on digital infrastructures and processes related to SDG-11 and Smart Cities to identify areas of significance for further research. Although many Smart City projects discuss sustainability benefits, the distribution of benefits and risks across different communities is rarely examined. An increased use of ICT in Smart City projects can provide environmental benefits to some communities, while shifting the burden of risks to other communities. An increased use of ICT has its own energy and resource impacts that has implications for sustainability beyond the geography of individual cities to global impacts. The lifecycle and supply chain impacts of advanced ICT projects are being identified and documented. The end user of the Smart City projects may benefit significantly from the increased use of ICTs, while the environmental costs are often borne by disparate communities. In some cases, within the same city where a Smart City project is deployed, the inequities in distribution of environmental resources and services are exacerbated by layering new ICT implementations on top of existing socio-economic inequities. Therefore, this paper combines a broad view of Smart City environmental impacts, as well as a deep examination of the intersection of social justice and environmental justice issues to create more wholistic approaches for analysis of governance of Smart City projects. A more wholistic approach for governance of Smart City projects is required that includes combined social justice and environmental justice frameworks, toward achievement of SDG-11 goals.

Environmental Justice as an Alternative to Resilience: India as an Example

The notion of resilience is being increasingly used, without much criticism, in various areas of the development debate, involving climate migration. Nevertheless, the concept incorporates several weaknesses which are often ignored: it is a vague and non-transparent concept with shifting meanings, transfers the risk and responsibility of adaptation from the state onto the shoulders of individuals, and duplicates existing injustices. Thus, it promotes the continuation of the status quo and overlooks the structural causes of socio-economic and environmental problems. This paper argues that resilience is a limited framework to deal with environmental harms and that environmental degradation should be dealt with in a framework of environmental justice because it provides a more comprehensive and just socio-ecological lens for the critical assessment and solution of environmental problems. The paper studies the phenomenon of climate migration in India and investigates why an environmental justice framework should be employed for analyzing and proposing solutions to environmental damage instead of resilience.