ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a broad overview of the diverse, rapidly growing body of research on issues of environmental justice and injustice, both to introduce new scholars to the field and to help orient the agendas of experienced researchers. From its origins in grassroots activism and engaged sociological scholarship, primarily in the US, environmental justice (EJ) research has generated what is now a vast, multi-disciplinary literature encompassing a wide range of issues and politics in countries throughout the world. The book focuses on different dimensions of EJ as a normative concept in theory and practice, building and expanding on David Schlosberg's framework and considering how these dimensions relate to each other. Derek Bell and Jayne Carrick begin with an analysis of the complexities of procedural EJ in both theory and professional practice, proposing a framework for "assessing the relative injustice of actual environmental institutions".