2019/12/11 by Robert Häfner, Hafner, Robert
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Environmental Justice and Health Disparities #Mining and Resource Management #Risk Perception and Management #claims making #environmental justice #human-environment relations #social-ecological conflict
paper · doi:10.12854/erde-2020-486
openalex publication_date 2019/12/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
Environmental justice concepts have undergone significant changes from being solely distributive to include underlying power asymmetries. Consequently, we are now faced with a wide array of different interpretations of what environmental justice is. This calls for a fundamental reflection on what environmental justice stands for, how and most importantly why it is used. To achieve this goal, this paper elaborates on the genesis of environmental justice. Recurring challenges of environmental justice research and activism will be identified. Addressing those challenges, as well as breaking down environmental justice concepts into smaller patterns and Fleck’sian thought styles, the Environmental Justice Incommensurabilities Framework (EJIF) is introduced. This evaluation and monitoring tool encourages actors (and especially researchers) to reflect upon ideological positionings and axiological interpretations of human-environment relations as well as justice, making research on and with environmental justice more transparent and comparable.