In Pursuit of Socially Just Conservation
Operationalizing Capability Thinking to Evaluate Human Well-Being in Protected Places
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3776009 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julie A Silva (0000-0002-4837-5288, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, corresponding author), Mary Strong (0000-0002-7288-6475, Maricopa Community Colleges - Glendale Community College) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 115 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1-13 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the American Association of Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2469-4452 • E-ISSN: 2469-4460 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/24694452.2025.2535473 |
| OpenAlex | W4413218770 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 84 |
Aligning Amartya Sen’s capability approach with the concept of place attachment provides a promising way to make comparative assessments of conservation-related impacts on human well-being. Members of Indigenous communities managed their physical environment long before Western-inspired conservation initiatives imposed external practices, making it a matter of justice to consider conservation’s effects on specific groups. Evaluating well-being in terms of capabilities—people’s genuine opportunities to do and be what they have reason to value—prioritizes the expansion of individual and collective freedom of choice and action. Place attachment is one aspect of human well-being that arises when particular social and physical landscapes enable feelings of safety and security, support the fulfillment of goals, and promote cultural continuity. Using place attachment as a unifying concept within the capability approach enriches the framework by encompassing the influences of both the physical environment and socioeconomic conditions. A combined perspective also facilitates the empirical application of the capability approach across populations with varying value systems. We present a methodology for applying capability thinking in conservation research, accommodating the multidimensional and context-dependent impacts on communities while enabling generalizable insights into the relationship between protected areas, quality of life, and environmental justice
Capability approach · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Epistemology · Geography · Operationalization · Political science · Sociology · Philosophy · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Urban Green Space and Health · Urban Planning and Governance
Imposing Wilderness
Protected areas and poverty
Place Attachment Enhances Psychological Need Satisfaction
We are at risk, and so what? Place attachment, environmental risk perceptions and preventive coping behaviours
Is My Home My Castle? Place Attachment, Risk Perception, and Religious Faith
Measuring place attachment with the Abbreviated Place Attachment Scale (Apas)
Place and placelessness
Commodities and capabilities
Bush Base, Forest Farm
Space and place
Well-Being, Agency and Freedom
Creating Capabilities
A Theory of Justice
From Individual to Collective Capabilities
For multispecies liberatory futures
Shared shorelines, shared meanings
What makes a place special? Understanding drivers and the nature of place attachment
War, by Conservation
Core Poverty, Vagueness and Adaptation
The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation
Development as Freedom
For better or worse
Place attachment
Place Attachment
The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior
Place attachment in a revitalizing neighborhood
Poor, Relatively Speaking
Place attachment, place identity, and place memory
When does place attachment lead to climate change adaptation and when does it not? A quantitative review and thematic analysis
Transformational capacity and the influence of place and identity
The role of location and social impacts of protected areas on subjective wellbeing
Environment, justice and the capability approach
Capabilities, Identity, Aspirations and Ecosystem Services
Beyond “benefits”? Looking at ecosystem services through the capability approach
Wildness, infinity and freedom
A review of the social impacts of neoliberal conservation
We would like this place to be a town’
The mediating role of place attachment between nature connectedness and human well-being
Boundary, place, and event in the spatiality of history
Sen's Capability Approach and Gender Inequality
The Human Development Paradigm
Capabilities, Lists, and Public Reason
Examining aspiration’s imprint on the landscape
Non-monetary poverty and deprivation
Region and place III
Capitals and Capabilities
Induced volition
People, place, and animals
Relational place‐making
Forms and sources of place attachment
Justice and inequality in space—A socio-normative analysis
The power of place in understanding place attachments and meanings
Cattle-based livelihoods, changes in the taskscape, and human–bear conflict in the Ecuadorian Andes
Staying despite disaster risks
Tracking Invasive Land Covers in India, or Why Our Landscapes Have Never Been Modern
Climate change affects multiple dimensions of well-being through impacts, information and policy responses
Human geography and socio-technical transition studies
Conservation and Displacement
Defining place attachment
Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice
The Capability Approach
The Role of Nostalgia in (Re)creating Place Attachments for a Diasporic Community
Reassessing Fortress Conservation? New Media and the Politics of Distinction in Kruger National Park
Global environmental justice and biodiversity conservation
Geographies of Place Attachment
Capabilities, place, and wellbeing in conservation spaces
The Idea of Justice
A Space for Place in Sociology
The Capability Approach and Sustainability
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |