ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights that conflicts over land and resource allocation can become insoluble when efforts to manage them neglect the different perceptions of justice which are often at the heart of these disputes. The concept of environmental justice provides a mechanism for investigating these complex issues, helping us to comprehend why conflicts become resistant to legal and policy intervention and how they could be differently managed. The book focuses specifically on theories of justice, and process explanations for the causes of injustice. This review of the literature provides a range of concepts and ideas that are useful for considering empirical evidence of inequity. Justice-based approaches to land use decision making are more likely to mitigate broad-scale social conflict over extractive development.
