Justice and Environmentalisms in the British Columbia and U.S. Pacific Northwest Environmental Movements

Abstract

Researchers have found that many contemporary movements, including the environmental justice movement, offer multidimensional conceptions of justice that extend beyond the distribution of societal benefits and burdens. In an effort to understand the role of justice in environmental politics more broadly, we ask (1) how environmental activists throughout the movement understand social justice and (2) whether and how environmental activists vary in the kinds of justice claims they make. Drawing on interviews with samples of environmental activists in British Columbia, Canada, and the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington, Q methodology is used to examine how environmental activists understand justice. We find, within the mainstream of the environmental movement, varying and elaborated understandings of social justice in the environmental context.