Ecological justice theory must pluralize into recognition and capability discourses

Evidence

The aim of this chapter is to offer a theory of ecological justice—justice to nature—that moves beyond a sole focus on the distributive paradigm of justice and encompasses innovative ideas in both recent theories of justice and the political demands of relevant social movements. The central focus will be on bringing notions of recognition and capabilities into a broad and comprehensive theory of ecological justice. My task here is not to lay out one single and universal theory of ecological justice; rather, the point is to examine the potential of a few additional discourses of justice, and a variety of approaches within each, that we can use to understand and extend practices of justice to include the nonhuman natural world— individual animals, communities, and the whole of nature. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 420

Categorization

• DEFINE: Scopes the chapter’s aim: multiple ecological-justice discourses (recognition, capability) rather than one universal distributive theory.
• XREF: connects to: Ecological justice extends all four justice components to nonhuman nature — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 549; Environmental justice discourse centers maldistribution over recognition or participation — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 34; A shared justice vocabulary can unify environmental and ecological justice movements — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 41 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• One integrated justice discourse can serve both human and ecological struggles #contradicts (0.95) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 552
• Environmental justice comprises recognition and participation as well as distribution #corroborates (0.80) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 12
• Distributive-only justice theory fails to address recognition and capability concerns #expands (0.75) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 415