ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept, meaning, and use of the idea of environmental justice. It addresses some of the history of the origins of both the movement for, and scholarly concept of, environmental justice. The ‘injustice’ of environmental justice can be understood in terms of the maldistribution of environmental goods and bads, misrecognition and disrespect of communities, exclusion from environmental decision making, and the disruption of individual and community functioning. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the way the idea and discourse of environmental justice has spread in the past few decades.
