Gender, Justice, and the Environment: Connecting the Dots

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Byfield
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Nigerian Women ◽  
Connecting The Dots

In this paper I attempt to connect several dots, specifically my research on African women's activism, environmental justice, and climate change. The book on which I am currently working is tentatively entided “‘The Great Upheaval’: Women, Taxes and Nationalist Politics in Abeokuta (Nigeria), 1945–1951.” The study examines the struggles of Nigerian women to shape the nationalist agenda and their setbacks as the country moved decisively toward independence. At its core lies an analysis of a tax revolt launched by women in Abeokuta in 1947. The Abeokuta Women's Union (AWU), under the leadership of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (the mother of the late musician Fela Kuti), began a protracted protest against a tax increase. This revolt is well known in Nigerian popular history, and many people outside of Nigeria were introduced to it in Wole Soyinka's memoir, Ake: The Years of Childhood (1981:164–218).

Women's Activism, Feminism, and Social Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Relational Framework ◽  
Individual Success

Informed by practices of women’s activism in India, this book proposes a feminist social justice framework to address the wide range of issues women face globally, including economic exploitation; sexist oppression; racial, ethnic, and caste oppression; and cultural imperialism. The feminist social justice framework provides an alternative to mainstream philosophical frameworks that analyze and promote gender justice globally: universal human rights, economic projects such as microfinance, and cosmopolitanism. These frameworks share a commitment to individualism and abstract universalism that underlie certain liberal and neoliberal approaches to justice. Arguing that these frameworks emphasize individualism over interdependence, similarity over diversity, and individual success over collective capacity, McLaren draws on the work of Rabindranath Tagore to develop the concept of relational cosmopolitanism. Relational cosmopolitanism prioritizes our connections, while acknowledging power differences. Extending Iris Young’s theory of political responsibility, McLaren shows how Fair Trade connects to the economic solidarity movement. The Self-Employed Women’s Association and MarketPlace India empower women through access to livelihoods as well as fostering leadership capabilities that allow them to challenge structural injustice through political and social activism. Their struggles to resist economic exploitation and gender oppression through collective action show the importance of challenging individualist approaches to achieving gender justice. The book concludes with a call for a shift in our thinking and practice toward reimagining the possibilities for justice from a relational framework, from independence to interdependence, from identity to intersectionality, and from interest to sociopolitical imagination.

scholarly journals Failure to Meet up to Expectation: Examining Women’s Activist Groups in the Post-Colonial Period in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Adebukola Dagunduro ◽  
Adebimpe Adenugba
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Women's Groups ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Nigerian Women ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Liberal Feminism ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Women’S Groups ◽  
Activist Groups

AbstractWomen’s activism within various ethnic groups in Nigeria dates back to the pre-colonial era, with notable heroic leaders, like Moremi of Ife, Amina of Zaria, Emotan of Benin, Funmilayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and many others. The participation of Nigerian women in the Beijing Conference of 1995 led to a stronger voice for women in the political landscape. Several women’s rights groups have sprung up in the country over the years. Notable among them are the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies (FNWS), Women in Nigeria (WIN), Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) and Female in Nigeria (FIN). However, majority have failed to actualize significant political, social or economic growth. This paper examines the challenges and factors leading to their inability to live up to people’s expectations. Guided by patriarchy and liberal feminism theories, this paper utilizes both historical and descriptive methods to examine these factors. The paper argues that a lack of solidarity among women’s groups, financial constraints, unfavourable political and social practices led to the inability of women’s groups in Nigeria to live up to the envisaged expectations. The paper concludes that, for women’s activist groups to survive in Nigeria, a quiet but significant social revolution is necessary among women. Government should also formulate and implement policies that will empower women politically, economically and socially.

Planning for Improved Air Quality and Environmental Health

2012 ◽  
pp. 435-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Schweitzer ◽  
Linsey Marr
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Wishful Thinking ◽  
Emissions Reductions ◽  
Quality Issues

This article focuses on the issue of improving air quality and environmental health in urban planning. It suggests that the planning assumptions about emissions reductions, air quality, and climate change may reflect more wishful thinking and project marketing than effective air quality and climate planning, and argues that the goal of planning analysis in air quality seldom, if ever, considers neighborhoods or people. The article also compares and contrasts current planning and regulatory approaches with how community and environmental justice advocates frame air-quality issues.

Environmental Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Hanschel ◽  
Elizabeth Steyn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Moving Target ◽  
World Views ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ontological Sense

This chapter deals with the evolving quest to attain environmental justice. It demonstrates that there are many facets and manifestations of environmental justice—a concept that sits at the junction of legal doctrine and anthropological realities. Amalgamating these two perspectives permits us to capture examples of such injustices and to analyse how law responds to them. This investigation into environmental justice adopts a three-pronged approach. The first section, ‘The meaning and origins of “environmental justice”’, contemplates the emergence and rise of the environmental justice movement, as well as disruptions and innovations in the ontological sense of the concept itself. The second section, ‘Litigating environmental justice’, lays out concrete facets of environmental justice from a classic anthropocentric viewpoint in a schematically organized format. Four dimensions of environmental justice litigation are delineated. In the third part of the chapter, ‘Expanding environmental justice’, we consider more holistic or ecocentric applications of environmental justice, most notably Indigenous world views and the potential recognition of the rights of nature. We conclude that environmental justice is a moving target—it can mean different things to different people in different contexts, and is constantly adapting to new realities. As topics such as climate change or loss of biodiversity show, the human–nature relationship is, indeed, among the most pressing issues of our time. Environmental justice is, therefore, likely to gain even more importance in the coming decades, and further interdisciplinary research will be required to understand what that justice may entail in very concrete and variegated circumstances.

What Islamic contributions have been made to climate change action and how useful are they in promoting environmental justice?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elle Turnbull
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Religious Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Environmental

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore Islamic contributions to discussions on climate change action and environmental justice. The author argues that Islamic approaches to this issue provide a unique cultural and religious perspective which can effectively address the issue of climate change. Design/methodology/approach Beginning with a discussion of the concepts central to this essay, the author moves to discuss why she has chosen to move away from approaches founded in criminal law, instead of arguing that it is important to focus on culturally specific approaches to environmental justice. The author then explores some of the approaches taken by mainstream Muslim organisations working towards environmental justice. In particular, the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change and responses from Islamic Relief Worldwide, considering both the benefits and flaws of these approaches. Findings The author concludes by arguing that Sharīʿah has potential for developing Muslim environmental justice further, using Islamic legal rulings from Indonesia as an example. In this way, Islamic contributions can further aid global environmental justice. The author finds that culturally specific approaches to climate change, founded in legal mechanisms such as the Islamic juridical process (fiqh), have vast potential in securing environmental justice across the globe. Originality/value Islamic contributions to climate change are often relegated to the background, while approaches from the perspective of legal mechanisms and criminal law have been favoured. The author believes that an Islamic approach is not only a starkly different approach, but also one which can provide an impetus for change. This is particularly true for the contributions of Islamic jurists.

A Global and Intergenerational Storm

2019 ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
Kristina Diprose ◽  
Gill Valentine ◽  
Robert M. Vanderbeck ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Katie Mcquaid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Human Sense

This chapter situates the INTERSECTION programme of research within wider international debates regarding the relationship between consumption and climate change. It explores how this relationship is addressed in arguments for environmental justice and sustainable development, and how it is reflected in international policy-making. This discussion highlights how climate change is typically cast as both an international and intergenerational injustice, or the convergence of a ‘global storm’ and an ‘intergenerational storm’. This chapter also situates the original contribution of the book within recent social science scholarship that explores how people live with a changing climate, advocating a ‘human sense’ of climate and social change, and outlines the main themes of the subsequent empirical chapters.

scholarly journals International and Domestic Law Dimensions of Climate Justice for Arctic Indigenous Peoples

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 113-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ann Kronk Warner ◽  
Randall S. Abate
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Indian Country ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The Arctic region is in crisis from the effects of climate change. The impacts of climate change pose a particular threat to Arctic indigenous communities. Because of the disproportionate impacts of climate change, these indigenous communities are environmental justice communities. Part I of this article discusses how indigenous nations are environmental justice communities and discusses the unique factors that may apply to environmental justice claims arising in Indian country. The article then presents two case studies to explore how, if at all, these concepts have been previously applied to environmental justice claims brought by various Arctic indigenous communities. Part II addresses the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Part III considers the Native Village of Kivalina’s lawsuit against numerous private emitters of greenhouse gases. These case studies underscore the failure of international and domestic forums’ consideration of the special situation of Arctic indigenous peoples as environmental justice communities.

Are There Limits to Limits?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Global South ◽  
Peak Oil ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Ecological Problems ◽  
The Rich

The idea that there might be “limits to growth” is a key and contested feature of environmental politics. This chapter outlines the limits to growth thesis, describes and assesses critical reactions to it, and comments upon its relevance today. It argues that, after an initial highpoint in the early 1970s, the thesis declined in importance during the 1980s and 1990s under criticism from “ecological modernizers” and from environmental justice advocates in the global South who saw it as way of diverting blame for ecological problems from the rich and powerful to the poor and dispossessed. “Peak oil” and climate change have, though, given renewed impetus to the idea, and this has given rise to new discourses and practices around “sustainable prosperity” and “degrowth.”

Environmental Justice and Climate Change Adaptation in the Context of Risk Society

2018 ◽  
pp. 251-268
Author(s):  
Maria Eduarda Medeiros da Silveira ◽  
Solange Buchele de S. Thiago ◽  
Larissa Pereira Cipoli Ribeiro ◽  
Ana Clara Medeiros da Silveira ◽  
José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Risk Society

Oil Opposition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C.J. Stoddart ◽  
Jillian Rene Smith ◽  
Paula Graham
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Ecological Risks ◽  
Oil Development ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oil Sector

This chapter examines mobilization against new oil development by Indigenous and environmental activists. Drawing on Canadian examples, two key themes are identified. First, anti-oil activism adopts a diversity of discourses and tactical links between particular oil development projects and broader socio-environmental issues such as colonialism and climate change. Environmental opposition often reflects a conservationist approach that emphasizes ecological risks, which compartmentalizes opposition to specific projects from broader analyses of the oil sector. Indigenous opposition is more often grounded in a rights-based approach that emphasizes Canada’s long history of colonization. Second, where there are alignments between Indigenous and environmental opposition against oil projects, appeals to treaty agreements and environmental justice are used by both indigenous and non-indigenous anti-oil activists to challenge energy projects.

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