In the face of global state and market-failure to address the environmental crisis, a global movement for Environmental Justice has been expanding and diversifying in recent years. As a response to globalisation of trade flows and global problems such as climate change, local defensive struggles are increasingly engaging with wider political, geographical, and historical contexts at the same time as they put into practice economic, political and social alternatives of production, exchange and governance. This project thus emphasises and dissects processes of knowledge production and resistance formation against “extractivism” and towards transformative sustainability from the ground-up, with the assumption that therein lies the greatest potential for action and agency towards dealing with environmental and social crises today. Building on and broadening the path breaking work on mapping global ecological conflicts of the Atlas of Environmental Justice, combined with in depth collaborative research of how EJ is enacted in specific locations, we emphasise the transformative potential of citizen movements, ‘participatory’ approaches to environmental politics and new institutional practices born from local knowledge, showing how alternatives are often born from resistance.
To find out more visit the ACKnowl-EJ website.
SELECTED OUTPUTS
– In December 2016, UEA hosted a Think Tank to discuss Environmental Justice and Conflict Transformation – read the News Briefing or the comprehensive Report.
– Rodriguez, I. (2017). Linking well-being with cultural revitalization for greater cognitive justice in conservation: lessons from Venezuela in Canaima National Park. Ecology and Society 22(4):24
PROJECT DIRECTORS
– The Institute of Environmental and Technological Sciences (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona
– Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group from India
RESEARCH PARTNERS
– School of International Development (DEV), University of East Anglia
– The Asfarfor Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut
– The Bogazici University from Turkey
– Grupo Confluencias from Latin America
