The Geography of Environmental Justice in Barrancabermeja

A Constructionist Approach for the Analysis of Social Justice Through the Cases of Environmental Justice and Water Pollution

Authors

  • Fatima Garcia Elena Nottingham Trent University

Keywords:

justice, environment, construction, water, rights

Abstract

The aim of this article is to represent social justice as a social construction throughout the study of the role of environmental justice in the process of construction of social justice. Social justice is presented as a socio-spatial state or situation characterized by the fulfilment of all different derivative kinds of justice (economic justice, environmental justice, racial justice, etc.) rather than a separate outcome. This approach links to Martha Nussbaum’s and Amartya Sen’s works on social justice as far as it is presented as the result of maintained social practices. Environmental justice is used in this article as a case-study to analyse the relationship between the incidence of environmental injustice and the weakening of social justice. The data over which this discussion relies was gathered during fieldwork in Barrancabermeja (Colombia) in June 2016, and it is composed by environmental, ethnographic and economic data. The approach of this article meets Doreen Massey’s and other human geographers claims on combining human and physical geography research to produce systemic territorial data and position geography as the conceptual link between social and physical sciences.

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Published

2019-07-08

How to Cite

Garcia Elena, F. (2019). The Geography of Environmental Justice in Barrancabermeja: A Constructionist Approach for the Analysis of Social Justice Through the Cases of Environmental Justice and Water Pollution. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(3), 581–605. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1717