scholarly journals Just Transition at the Intersection of Labour and Climate Justice Movements: Lessons from the Portuguese Climate Jobs Campaign

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrislain Eric Kenfack
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Key Words Climate Change ◽  
Global North ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The One ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Political Economic

In the current context of climate change and its accompanying adverse effects on natural, human and social systems, the imperative of transitioning to low- and preferably post-carbon societies has become a non-negotiable reality if we want to avoid reaching the point of no return in terms of environmental and climate catastrophe. Such a transition requires that the interests and needs of workers and their communities be taken into consideration to make sure they do not bear the heaviest part of the burden in terms of loss of jobs and means of survival, and that they are prepared to face the new, post-carbon labour environment. The concept of Just Transition was coined to describe both the socio-political project put forward by trade unions in response to climate change, and the recognition by climate activists that the livelihoods and security of workers and their communities must be ensured during the transition to a post-carbon society. However, just transition movements are divided between two quite different orientations, which are labelled “affirmative” and “transformative.” On the one hand, affirmative just transition advocates envisage a transition within the current political-economic system. Transformative just transition activists, on the other hand, envisage a post-capitalist transition. This article, drawing upon an extensive case study of the Portuguese climate jobs campaign, goes beyond showing how these orientations shape the positions taken by union and climate activists. The article also analyses how the conflicts and cooperation between these key actors can shed light on the possibilities and/or limitations of just transition as a framework for the collective action needed to achieve rapid, deep decarbonisation of economies in the Global North context. KEY WORDS: climate change; just transition; labour environmentalism; climate jobs; climate justice; climate activism

scholarly journals Moving at the Speed of Trust: Radical and Progressive Change through Climate Justice Movements in Aotearoa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Yvonne Simons
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
Complex Fluid ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Depth Interviews

<p>Human-induced climate change is already having an acute impact on many lives and livelihoods. This is expected to escalate, especially for “disadvantaged people and communities in countries at all levels of development” (Pachauri et al., 2014, p. 13). This thesis is situated within post- and critical development, enabling critique of mainstream development alongside the exploration of alternative, bottom-up forms of development, such as social movements. Following a social constructionist epistemology, it utilises qualitative methodologies (in-person and virtual in-depth interviews) to navigate the complex, fluid, and subjective field of climate justice. This research situates the emerging climate justice movements in Aotearoa as key to understanding how radical, progressive societal change is articulated in the contemporary era to mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change. Several core themes emerge as part of the research, including how various actors (organisations, sub-movements, and individuals) relate to each other and the world around them. This research asks and addresses not only what climate justice is in Aotearoa and who is involved, but also which theories of change operate within these emerging social movements? The data in this research outlines that climate justice movements in Aotearoa are accessible, inclusive, relational, accountable and frontline community-led, the antithesis of the current dominant structures and systems of society. These movements build upon other rights and justice movements, notably: Indigenous justice, disability justice, intersectional feminism, workers’ rights, and intergenerational justice. The development and negotiation of a collective climate justice identity is shaped by several interconnected tensions: partisanship versus non-partisanship, internal conformity versus diversity, and ecosystem versus ‘egosystem’. These tensions can also impede connection and understanding, at times leading to substantial harm to individuals, communities, and climate justice more broadly. This thesis outlines multiple forces shaping the actualisation of justice in an Aotearoa experiencing climate change. Fundamentally, this thesis highlights that climate justice is an ongoing journey of relationships and negotiations that “move at the speed of trust”.</p>

scholarly journals CARBON COLONIALISM OR CLIMATE JUSTICE? INTERROGATING THE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE REGIME FROM A TWAIL PERSPECTIVE

1969 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Dehm
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Carbon Trading ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global Action ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Forms Of Carbon ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Analytical Tools

This article provides a TWAIL critique of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] in the aftermath of the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris in December 2015. It engages with criticisms from the social and climate justice movement that the UNFCCC is promoting forms of “carbon colonialism” or “CO2lonialism” through its support for and establishment of international carbon trading and offsetting strategies. It proposes that using a jurisdictional approach to examine how the authority of the UNFCCC is authorized can provide key analytical tools to understand the regime. The article examines the way in which the regime is authorized by an invocation of “common concern” even as it promotes policies that marginalize the interests of those already most vulnerable to climate change. It concludes by suggesting that climate justice movements already are building different forms of commonality and that these alternative commonalties represent important new ways of thinking about global action on climate change. 

Climate Justice in Durban

2022 ◽  
pp. 297-317
Author(s):  
Innocent Simphiwe Nojiyeza
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Shopping Mall ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
North Central ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Development Unit ◽  
The One

This chapter situates itself in the climate justice discourse and unpacks the paradoxes in state and grassroots action. It argues that due to market-orientated and neo-liberal water and sanitation governance, the failure to take into account water and climate change governance as well as ecological and institutional economics resulted in climate change chaos. Due to this paralysis, communities failed to adapt to climate variability. The illogicalities and ambiguities in what the municipality says and does leaves local communities at the vagaries of nature and to deal with the resulting chaos albeit with some doing so in quite inspiring ways. The empirical data is collected through 120 interviews and four participatory action workshops conducted with civil society actors, government officials, academics, and communities of AmaQadi situated in North Central Durban, Umbumbulu in South Durban, Wood Glen and Zamani B in Durban Outer West, Ntuzuma G and Soweto in North Central Durban. The key finding is that the municipal Climate Change Protection Unit adopted a ‘climate-resilient' strategy on the one hand, but on the other, city electricity officials built power stations in flood plains, the Economic Development Unit promoted a shopping mall in a wetland, and eThekwini Water is introducing unpopular UD toilets to deal with water scarcity, without looking at externalities in wetlands and the discharge of faecal waste from broken sewers that compromise biodiversity and ecosystem balances. This chapter is contributing knowledge of climate change resilience and adaptation by communities within the framework of new institutional and ecological economics.

Climate-Ready Seeds and Patent Rights: A Question of Climate (in) Justice?

Global Jurist ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Saab
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

AbstractThis paper seeks to examine the concept of climate justice and how it is employed by different actors and for different ends. This will be done through an exploration of invocations of climate justice in discussions about a proposed adaptation strategy, namely ‘climate-ready seeds’. The impacts of climate change are often perceived as a form of injustice, because the most vulnerable regions and people suffer disproportionately while having contributed least to causing climate change. Adaptation strategies intended to alleviate this suffering can be viewed as a pursuit of climate justice. At the same time, some argue that certain adaptation strategies cause more injustice than they alleviate. Climate justice movements thus also aim to correct the injustices caused by adaptation strategies. Critics of climate-ready seeds contend that this proposed adaptation strategy is a profitable business for seed corporations, but does not benefit poor farmers. Even though different actors use the concept of climate justice for different purposes, they often invoke similar notions of ‘rights’. I argue in this paper that reliance on rights in all accounts of climate justice in discourses about climate-ready seeds plays a hand in obscuring the distinct aims and ends contained in the idea of climate justice.

Climate Justice in the Global North

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakash Kashwan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Global North ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Climate Responses ◽  
Blind Spots

This essay provides a broad-based and jargon-free introduction to climate justice to foster critical thinking, engaged discussions, and profound reflections. It introduces the reader to three dimensions of justice—distributional, procedural, and recognitional justice—and shows how each relates to climate justice. A unique contribution of this essay is to identify and discuss the following three blind spots in the debates on climate justice: (1) the tendency to focus heavily on post hoc effects of climate change while ignoring the root causes of climate change that also contribute to injustices; (2) assuming incorrectly that all climate action contributes to climate justice, even though some types of climate responses can produce new climate injustices; and (3) although scholars have studied the causes of climate injustices extensively, the specific pathways to climate justice remain underdeveloped. This essay concludes by showcasing a few examples of the ongoing pursuits of climate justice, led by social justice groups, local governments, and some government agencies.

scholarly journals Moving at the Speed of Trust: Radical and Progressive Change through Climate Justice Movements in Aotearoa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Yvonne Simons
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
Complex Fluid ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Depth Interviews

<p>Human-induced climate change is already having an acute impact on many lives and livelihoods. This is expected to escalate, especially for “disadvantaged people and communities in countries at all levels of development” (Pachauri et al., 2014, p. 13). This thesis is situated within post- and critical development, enabling critique of mainstream development alongside the exploration of alternative, bottom-up forms of development, such as social movements. Following a social constructionist epistemology, it utilises qualitative methodologies (in-person and virtual in-depth interviews) to navigate the complex, fluid, and subjective field of climate justice. This research situates the emerging climate justice movements in Aotearoa as key to understanding how radical, progressive societal change is articulated in the contemporary era to mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change. Several core themes emerge as part of the research, including how various actors (organisations, sub-movements, and individuals) relate to each other and the world around them. This research asks and addresses not only what climate justice is in Aotearoa and who is involved, but also which theories of change operate within these emerging social movements? The data in this research outlines that climate justice movements in Aotearoa are accessible, inclusive, relational, accountable and frontline community-led, the antithesis of the current dominant structures and systems of society. These movements build upon other rights and justice movements, notably: Indigenous justice, disability justice, intersectional feminism, workers’ rights, and intergenerational justice. The development and negotiation of a collective climate justice identity is shaped by several interconnected tensions: partisanship versus non-partisanship, internal conformity versus diversity, and ecosystem versus ‘egosystem’. These tensions can also impede connection and understanding, at times leading to substantial harm to individuals, communities, and climate justice more broadly. This thesis outlines multiple forces shaping the actualisation of justice in an Aotearoa experiencing climate change. Fundamentally, this thesis highlights that climate justice is an ongoing journey of relationships and negotiations that “move at the speed of trust”.</p>

scholarly journals Climate Justice, the Global South and Policy Preferences of Kenyan Environmental NGOs

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Todd Beer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global South ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
Environmental Ngos ◽  
Global North ◽  
Global Agreement

Negotiations for a global agreement to address climate change have often pitted the nations of the heavily industrialized Global North against the nations of the developing Global South. The Global North has tended to emphasize the common responsibilities of all nations to reduce emissions while nations of the Global South have tended to place more emphasis on the differentiated responsibilities. The Global North-South negotiating positions are derived from the inequality in: the historical and current emissions of greenhouse gasses, the emerging consequences of climate change, and the geo-political negotiating power between nation-states. However, these broad sweeping categories miss diverse goals and policy preferences among civil society actors within nations. Through in-depth, in-person interviews, this research documents the surprisingly strong presence of Global North policy preferences among the field of Kenyan environmental NGOs – a field that is significantly divided among the “climate justice” policy priorities strongly associated with nations of the Global South and “emissions reductions for all” priorities associated with nations the Global North. Qualitative data captures the rationale of KENGOs for the respective policy script preferences. Utilizing the nation-state as a unit of analysis would miss this variation among civil society actors within the Global South, variation that demonstrates the complex interaction between the diffusion of global policies and domestic social contexts.

scholarly journals Counter-Hegemonic Decision Premises in Commons-Based Peer Production: A Degrowth Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-370
Author(s):  
Ben Robra ◽  
Alex Pazaitis ◽  
Kostas Latoufis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Research Decision ◽  
Political Economic

Capitalism is evidently the main cause of ecological degradation, climate change and social inequality. Degrowth as a counter-hegemony opposes the capitalist imperatives of economic growth and capital accumulation and radically seeks to transform society towards sustainability. This has strong political economic implications. Economic organisations and modes of production are essential in overcoming capitalist hegemony. This article investigates two commons-based peer production (CBPP) organisations in a qualitative case study by asking how they could align with degrowth counter-hegemony to help overcome capitalism. Social systems theory is used as an organisational lens to empirically research decision premises and their degrowth counter-hegemonic alignment. The results show that this alignment is possible in relatively small organisations. However, to help degrowth succeed, CBPP needs to be more widely adopted, for which larger organisations seem better equipped. Future studies focusing on the concept of scaling wide in CBPP networks in the context of degrowth counter-hegemony are suggested.

scholarly journals ‘No-One Can Tell a Story Better than the One Who Lived It’: Reworking Constructions of Childhood and Trauma Through the Arts in Rwanda

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirrily Pells ◽  
Ananda Breed ◽  
Chaste Uwihoreye ◽  
Eric Ndushabandi ◽  
Matthew Elliott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Trauma Memory ◽  
Global North ◽  
Constructions Of Childhood ◽  
The One ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractThe intergenerational legacies of conflict and violence for children and young people are typically approached within research and interventions through the lens of trauma. Understandings of childhood and trauma are based on bio-psychological frameworks emanating from the Global North, often at odds with the historical, political, economic, social and cultural contexts in which interventions are enacted, and neglect the diversity of knowledge, experiences and practices. Within this paper we explore these concerns in the context of Rwanda and the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. We reflect on two qualitative case studies: Connective Memories and Mobile Arts for Peace which both used arts-based approaches drawing on the richness of Rwandan cultural forms, such as proverbs and storytelling practices, to explore knowledge and processes of meaning-making about trauma, memory, and everyday forms of conflict from the perspectives of children and young people. We draw on these findings to argue that there is a need to refine and elaborate understandings of intergenerational transmission of trauma in Rwanda informed by: the historical and cultural context; intersections of structural and ‘everyday’ forms of conflict and social trauma embedded in intergenerational relations; and a reworking of notions of trauma ‘transmission’ to encompass the multiple connectivities between generations, temporalities and expressions of trauma.

SAYYID ABUL AÑLÓ MAWDÕDÔ’S VIEWS ON IJTIHÓD AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM SOCIETY

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Munawar Haque
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Legal Aspect ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Islamic Revival ◽  
Muslim Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Political Economic

Abstract  The purpose of this article is to explore the views of Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ[1] on ijtihÉd.[2] It intends to trace the origins of MawdËdÊ’s ideas within the social, cultural and political context of his time, especially the increasing influence of modernity in the Muslim world.  The study will show that MawdËdÊ’s understanding of ijtihÉd and its scope demonstrates originality.  For MawdËdÊ, ijtihÉd is the concept, the process, as well as the mechanism by which the SharÊÑah,[3] as elaborated in the Qur’Én and the Sunnah[4] is to be interpreted, developed and kept alive in line with the intellectual, political, economic, legal, technological and moral development of society.  The notion of ijtihÉd adopted by MawdËdÊ transcends the confines of Fiqh[5] (jurisprudence) and tends therefore to unleash the dormant faculties of the Muslim mind to excel in all segments of life.   [1] Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ was born on September 25, 1903 in Awrangabad, a town in the present Maharashtra state of India in a deeply religious family.  His ancestry on the paternal side is traced back to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).  The family had a long-standing tradition of spiritual leadership, for a number of MawdËdÊ’s ancestors were outstanding leaders of ØËfÊ Orders.  One of the luminaries among them, the one from whom he derives his family name, was KhawÉjah QuÏb al-DÊn MawdËd (d. 527 AH), a renowned leader of the ChishtÊ ØËfÊ Order. MawdËdÊ died on September 22, 1979. See Khurshid Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari, “MawlÉnÉ Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ: An Introduction to His Vision of Islam and Islamic Revival,”, in Khurshd Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari (eds.) Islamic Perspectives: Studies in Honour of MawlÉnÉ Sayyid Abul A’lÉ MawdËdÊ,  (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation,1979), 360. [2]  In Islamic legal thought, ijtihÉd is understood as the effort of the jurist to derive the law on an issue by expending all the available means of interpretation at his disposal and by taking into account all the legal proofs related to the issue.  However, its scope is not confined only to legal aspect of Muslim society.  MawdËdÊ’s concept of ijtihÉd is defined as the legislative process that makes the legal system of Islam dynamic and makes its development and evolution in the changing circumstances possible.  This results from a particular type of academic research and intellectual effort, which in the terminology of Islam is called ijtihÉd.  The purpose and object of ijtihÉd is not to replace the Divine law by man made law.  Its real object is to properly understand the Supreme law and to impart dynamism to the legal system of Islam by keeping it in conformity with the fundamental guidance of the SharÊÑah and abreast of the ever-changing conditions of the world.  See Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ, The Islamic Law and Constitution, translated and edited by Khurshid Ahmad, (Lahore: Islamic Publications Ltd, 1983), 76.[3] SharÊÑah refers to the sum total of Islamic laws and guidance, which were revealed to the Prophet MuÍammad (peace be upon him), and which are recorded in the Qur’Én as well as deducible from the Prophet’s divinely guided lifestyle (called the Sunnah). See Muhammad ShalabÊ, al-Madkhal fÊ at-TaÑ’rÊf  b alil-Fiqh al-IslÉmÊ, (Beirut: n.p., 1968),.28.[4]Sunnah is the way of life of the Prophet (peace be upon him), consisting of his sayings, actions and silent approvals. It is also used to mean a recommended deed as opposed to FarÌ or WÉjib, a compulsory one.[5]  Originally Fiqh referred to deliberations related to one’s reasoned opinion, ra’y.  Later the expression Fiqh evolved to mean jurisprudence covering every aspect of Islam.  It is also applied to denote understanding, comprehension, and profound knowledge. For an excellent exposition on the meaning of Fiqh, see Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Theories of Islamic law: The methodology of ijtihÉd, (Delhi: Adam Publishers & Distributors, 1996), 20-22.

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