Conceptualising rural environmental justice in Europe in an age of climate-influenced landscape transformations
25th April 2023
Conceptualising rural environmental justice in Europe in an age of climate-influenced landscape transformations
David Brown – DEV, UEA
Tuesday 25 April | 12 – 1 pm
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88423124666
Driven by net zero commitments and other environmental policies, major landscape shifts and land-use changes are set to take place in rural Europe, notably related to large-scale afforestation, conservation and rewilding programs, carbon sequestration and livestock reduction. The potentially profound repurposing of rural landscapes in the face of climate change has significant implications for local livelihoods, identities and senses of place. The proposed land-use changes may be unequally experienced by local populations, may not be seen as legitimate or fair and thus may be resisted by rural populations, leading to what we suggest are ‘justice barriers’ to effective sustainable transformations and climate change mitigation targets. This paper draws from the ‘Just Scapes’ project which seeks to advance our understanding of the meanings and practices of ‘just transformations’ in European rural landscapes in response to climate change. Adopting an empirical environmental justice approach, we explore how rural citizens and communities in Europe perceive the (in) justices arising from potential climate-influenced land-use transformations through a comparative analysis of three case study landscapes: Scotland, France and the Czech Republic. Responding to gaps in the existing literature base, we investigate the contested narratives and embedded justice claims across these landscapes through the lens of rural environmental justice (Pellow, 2016). The paper compares experiences and forms of environmental (in)justice across three distinct rural European sites, specifically as they relate to landscape transformations and climate and environmental policy drivers, and conceptualises the particularities of rural environmental justice in a European context.