Community autonomy over local space is proposed as the essence of environmental justice

Evidence

Peña (2005), for example, makes the essential argument that environmental justice is, centrally, about autonomy, in addition to equity. While discussing the importance of other notions of justice, he elevates autonomy, and specifically community autonomy, overall else. Autonomy is ‘about the ability of local cultures to assert control over their own space (and places) by exercising freedoms to organize production and consumption in sustainable and equitable patters that derive from selfgenerated ecologically and culturally appropriate norms’ (p. 144). This, for Peña, is the essence of environmental justice. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 203

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines community autonomy as a distinct EJ frame differing from distributive/recognition accounts.
• XREF: Community autonomy over place connects directly to settler-colonial and eco-justice threads on land/place self-determination across the polyad. — connects to: Corporate privatization of water and seeds erodes local communities’ decision-making power — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 223; Cosmopolitan ecological-justice institutions can shrink rather than extend local participatory inclusion — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 411

Broader Connections

• Cosmopolitan ecological-justice institutions can shrink rather than extend local participatory inclusion #contradicts (0.78) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 411