Justice and the Environment

Conceptions of Environmental Sustainability and Theories of Distributive Justice

Bibliographic Data

ID23399397
AuthorsAmy Dobson (0000-0001-7268-9140, Keele University, corresponding author), Andrew Dobson (Keele University)
Year1998
Publication date1998-12-03
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueJustice and the Environment (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/0198294956.001.0001
OpenAlexW565556931
ISBN9780198294955
LanguageEN
Citations received206
References cited81

Environmental sustainability and social, or distributive, justice are both widely regarded as desirable social objectives. But can we assume that they are compatible with each other? This book analyses the complex relationship between these two pressing objectives. Environmental sustainability is taken to be a contested idea, and three distinct conceptions of it are explored and described. These conceptions are then examined in the context of fundamental distributive questions. Among whom or what should distribution take place? What should be distributed? What should the principle of distribution be? The book contains a critical examination of the claims of the ‘environmental‐justice’ and ‘sustainable‐development’ movements that social justice and environmental sustainability are points on the same virtuous circle, and suggests that radical environmental demands involving the preservation of ‘nature’ are only incompletely served by couching them in terms of justice. The conclusion is that inter‐generational justice is the context in which distributive and sustainability agendas are most closely aligned.

Biology · Context (archaeology) · Distribution (mathematics) · Distributive justice · Distributive property · Economic Justice · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental justice · Geography · Law and economics · Political science · Social justice · Sociology · Sustainability · Sustainable development · Virtuous circle and vicious circle · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Ecology · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics

Tools

Open DOI