Theorizing Environmental Justice: The Expanding Sphere of a

Discourse

David SchlosbergProfessor of Environmental Politics

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Overview• EJ has always challenged standard definitions– ‘Environment’ and ‘Justice’

• EJ discourse has expanded horizontally, vertically, and conceptually– More issues and countries, global focus,

communities, and the nonhuman realm• EJ is the basis of a range of new movements– Climate justice, ecosystems, new sustainability

• KEY: A shift from environment as symptom of inequity to environment as basis of justice

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Origins• Toxic dumps in low-income communities• The intersection of poverty and race as

indicators of environmental bads – and goods

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Defining Environment• Where we live, work, and play• Environment is more than wilderness• EJ attempted to bring a broader view of

environment into practice

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Defining (In)Justice• Distribution• Race/Recognition and respect• Participation• Basic needs for functioning communities

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Expanding Spaces of EJ

• More issues – transport, land use, food…• More places – from Latin America to Russia to

Australia• Globalizing EJ analysis – indigenous rights,

global toxics trade, climate vulnerability• Individual and Community analysis– Katrina, health, gas mining protests

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EJ Framing for New Challenges 1• Climate Justice– Traditional justice approaches: equity, responsibility,

participation, restorative justice– Movement approaches: climate change as another

manifestation of environmental injustice– Now: adaptation, vulnerability– But also, non-human nature• Katrina, again. • Coal mining in Oz?

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EJ Framing for New Challenges 2• Beyond the human focus – justice to nonhuman • Injustice = the interruption of the functioning of

living systems– UNFCCC: focus is impact on climate systems– Restoration: from history to functioning– Constitutional rights – Ecuador, Bolivia, New Zealand

Whanganui River

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EJ Framing for New Challenges 3• New or Sustainable Materialism– EJ and Sustainability in one

• Food justice movements– From food deserts to community

gardens and markets• Just energy transition• Engagement with practices

that undermine sustainability– Creation of just material flows

in everyday life

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Conclusions

• Theory and practice in/of EJ• The salience of environmental justice as a way

of understanding experiences of human relationships with the nonhuman – the experience of environmental disadvantage.

• The crucial shift: from environment as a symptom of inequity to environment as the precondition for social justice

Theorizing Environmental Justice: The Expanding Sphere of a

Discourse

David SchlosbergProfessor of Environmental Politics