Justice, neoliberal natures, and Australia's water reforms

Bibliographic Data

ID8962091
AuthorsGareth A S Edwards (0000-0002-0552-1206, School of International Development University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume40
Issue4
Pages479-493
Publication date2015-06-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12088
OpenAlexW1898566724
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited72

Scholars studying the neoliberalisation of nature (and political ecologists more broadly) have been notably concerned with justice, but have underspecified their own conceptions of justice and have failed to seriously question or investigate what kind (or kinds) of justice is actually being pursued in the context of neoliberalism. In this paper, I argue that a more robust treatment of justice is required, building on recent calls for a more reflexive approach to normativity in critical human geography. I make this argument by drawing on a study examining how justice has been mobilised in Australia's neoliberal water reforms, and particularly through a series of semi‐structured interviews with water policymakers and industry professionals. I show that the justice being pursued through these reforms is multivalent, but coalesces around an allocative framework I call the ‘basic needs plus market’ framework. This framework ultimately finds its moral compass in a utilitarian conception of distributive justice, and this utilitarianism both facilitates neoliberalisation and tempers its expression. Understanding neoliberalisation as a means to broader normative ends, I suggest, has considerable potential for both explaining the contradictions and contestations scholars have argued are intrinsic to ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ and opening up opportunities for productive critique and engagement

Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Distributive justice · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Global justice · Law and economics · Neoliberalism (international relations · Normative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Urban Planning and Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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