Environment and Justice

Human-environment relations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are changing at an ever-increasing pace. Previously ‘remote’ spaces and ‘inaccessible’ natural substances are being rendered accessible for global markets by new technologies and infrastructures. With this access comes new modes of production, consumption, and living that, in turn, bring long-lasting pollution. At the same time, the effects of anthropogenic climate change are transforming agricultural, pastoral and maritime practices. The projects of the research unit Environment and Justice examine these changes from both contemporary and historical perspectives. Through case studies drawn from the region, these projects seek to answer three key questions: How have local actors been acting and reacting to such transformations, and how have they been evaluating them? To what extent have they been discussing shifting human-environmental relations in terms of justice/injustice, or other related alternative concepts? What analytic concepts should we use to properly describe the relations between environmental change, social differences, and political hierarchies in these regions?

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