The scoping literature review examines nearly four decades of scholarly contributions, navigating the evo- lution of the environmental justice framework from its nascent roots to its contemporary dimensions. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of its conceptual trajectory, identifying key themes, pillars, and current directions. Spanning 7001 publications, the review employs lexical-metric content analyses to syn- thesize the corpus and reveal semantic clusters and temporal trends. The data underscore the increasing scholarly interest in environmental justice, manifested in a well-established field of study and multidiscipli- nary approaches. The analyses identify four pillars underpinning the framework: assessing built environ- ment quality, mitigating climate change effects, promoting responsible research and innovation (RRI), and emphasizing human dimensions. The pillars reflect the classical justice dimensions (i.e., distributive, proce- dural—also in its participatory sense—and recognition justice, respectively), while restorative justice is a cross-cutting dimension. They undergo significant transformations over time, defining some directions toward which the current scientific debate seems to orient: ensuring everyone’s well-being, realizing just transition, reducing global inequalities, and facing societal challenges together. Overall, the review delin- eates two complementary and interconnected frameworks: environmental justice as a theoretical frame- work for global issues and environmental justice as a concrete framework for situated issues. The conceptual frameworks have implications for environmental governance and activism, advocating for dem- ocratic, participatory, and cooperative approaches. Furthermore, they suggest avenues for future research, particularly in understanding social dynamics that bridge global and local concerns, aligning research agen- das with the interests and needs of affected communities.

Navigating Environmental Justice Framework: A Scoping Literature Review Over Four Decades

Sonia Brondi
;
Giacomo Chiara;Elisa Matutini
2024-01-01

Abstract

The scoping literature review examines nearly four decades of scholarly contributions, navigating the evo- lution of the environmental justice framework from its nascent roots to its contemporary dimensions. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of its conceptual trajectory, identifying key themes, pillars, and current directions. Spanning 7001 publications, the review employs lexical-metric content analyses to syn- thesize the corpus and reveal semantic clusters and temporal trends. The data underscore the increasing scholarly interest in environmental justice, manifested in a well-established field of study and multidiscipli- nary approaches. The analyses identify four pillars underpinning the framework: assessing built environ- ment quality, mitigating climate change effects, promoting responsible research and innovation (RRI), and emphasizing human dimensions. The pillars reflect the classical justice dimensions (i.e., distributive, proce- dural—also in its participatory sense—and recognition justice, respectively), while restorative justice is a cross-cutting dimension. They undergo significant transformations over time, defining some directions toward which the current scientific debate seems to orient: ensuring everyone’s well-being, realizing just transition, reducing global inequalities, and facing societal challenges together. Overall, the review delin- eates two complementary and interconnected frameworks: environmental justice as a theoretical frame- work for global issues and environmental justice as a concrete framework for situated issues. The conceptual frameworks have implications for environmental governance and activism, advocating for dem- ocratic, participatory, and cooperative approaches. Furthermore, they suggest avenues for future research, particularly in understanding social dynamics that bridge global and local concerns, aligning research agen- das with the interests and needs of affected communities.
2024
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/5081823
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