Distributing a primary good does not restore a system’s capability to function
Evidence
Take, for example, a river system. Water, a primary good, is increasingly taken from the river for agricultural and urban use. The effect is a serious impingement on the functionings of the river—to support fish species and native flora, or to supply silt to beaches that support other wildlife on the riverside. We could address the problem in a purely distributive way, say, by simply adding water to the river from the bottom of a dam upstream. This delivers a primary good, water, but it does not necessarily assist the river system (or the flora and fauna within it) in its capability to function. The water may be too cold, or come at the wrong time of year; it may assist in some functioning, for example supporting nonnative trout, but not in others, like supporting native fish species. To bring back the capability of a river system to fully function, we must address those factors that inhibit that capability: our tendency to understand a river as a power source, or as an agricultural aqueduct, and our need to understand the impact of dams and recognize water as something that supports more than agriculture and thirsty cities. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 503
Categorization
- XREF: Directly illustrates the book’s core point that distribution alone fails — connects to ch98 (distributive-only theory fails on recognition/capability) and to the polyad’s question of which justice type environmental regulation actually delivers. — connects to: Capability approaches locate injustice in limited capacities, not denied goods. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 146; Simple rules generate complex structures but never guarantee system self-maintenance — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 727; Self-reinforcing flagship systems cannot guarantee the ancillary systems that support them work.
- QUESTION: Whether a purely distributive fix (adding cold dam water) fails — how often do US river restorations actually commit this capability-blind error?
Broader Connections
- Simple rules generate complex structures but never guarantee system self-maintenance
#expands(0.82) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 727 - Self-reinforcing flagship systems cannot guarantee the ancillary systems that support them work.
#complicates(0.75)