Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Connecting social with the
environmental justice
Aims
This chapter explores the social-environmental interface of sustainable development
locally and globally by critically analysing the concepts and practices associated with
social and environmental justice. The role of new digital media, community develop-
ment, the idea of 'the commons' together with the importance of social capital, local
food initiatives and environmental justice campaigns will be examined as key elements
of the sustainable development process.
Human society and the environment
In many parts of the world, there is an intellectual and pragmatic transition underway
that seeks a connective, holistic and essentially ecological approach to human develop-
ment, recognizing the necessity of a trans-disciplinary approach to understanding
and acting in the world. Following the 1992 Rio Summit, sustainable development
was frequently represented graphically as three interlocking circles standing for the
economy, society and the environment, and, although there has been much critical
debate about economic growth, environmental limits and eco-efficiency, the language
of economics still influences much of the sustainability debate. There is now frequent
reference to various 'capitals' -
natural capital
,
economic capital
,
financial capital
,
human capital
,
cultural capital
,
symbolic capital
and
social capital
- by organizations
as diverse as the World Bank and the charity Forum for the Future. For many, the
environment (natural capital) means the natural world of forests, fields, animals,
rivers, atmosphere, wilderness and so on. This relatively uncomplicated understanding
leads to quite serious implications for individuals, social organizations and local-to-
global political arrangements. The first thing to recognize is that the natural world
has been shaped for literally thousands of years by the knowledge, capabilities and
skills of human beings (human capital). Our fields and woodlands are the result of
agricultural transformations. Many of the world's deserts have been produced as a
consequence of human activity. Our air quality, or lack of it, is often the result of
changing modes and sites of industrial production, old and new technology (economic
capital), and investment flows and processes (financial capital). Even the non-human
animal world has literally altered shape as a result of selective breeding techniques
and now genetic modification - practices inaugurated by human beings utilizing to
the full their intellectual capital. Towns, cities and sprawling urban conurbations
are obviously human constructs, and so is the quality of life within them, enhanced
or otherwise by networks of trust and reciprocity and political arrangements (social
