Understanding Environmental Inequalities: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of Research Approaches

Abstract

Abstract

Environmental justice refers to the impact of material inequalities on our built environments and affirms individual and community's right to fair and equal access to environmental resources and protection from environmental hazards. Scholars of environmental justice have examined how these conditions are implemented through distributive equality, legitimation of local knowledge, institutional transparency, and spatial justice. This article synthesizes these varied justice concerns in four scholarly traditions—environmental justice studies, science and technology studies, political philosophy, and urban geography—to propose a theoretical model for environmental justice. The model includes four justice dimensions—distributive fairness, democratic choices, place-specificity, and spatial equity. The proposed synthesis allows us to examine a broader range of inequalities, including fair distribution of environmental resources, violation of cultural rights, creation of effective participatory institutions, and equity in disbursement of public resources.