EJJE STUDY DAYS 5 & 6 OCTOBER 2023
TRANSFORMATIVE COLLECTIVE ACTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (2ND SESSION)
In the face of studies demonstrating the limitations of public policies on sustainable development and transition in combating global change and protecting the environment and people's health, some authors see the strength of collective action as the only potential vector for the expected socio-ecological transformations (Schlosberg and Craven 2019; Stevis 2020; Pruvost 2021, etc.). There is also a tendency to decompartmentalise social and environmental causes and repertoires of action (Grisoni and Nemoz 2017), combined with a form of ecologisation of radical movements and radicalisation of environmental movements (Malm 2020).
However, most of this literature focuses on the so-called 'northern' countries, where the dominant language of socio-ecological transition or the more radical language of transformation is being developed in a Eurocentric way (Martin et al. 2020). However, the ability of communities in the so-called 'South' to mobilise to protect their environment, ecosystem relations and ways of life outside the dynamics of hegemonic exploitation has been amply documented in the field of environmental justice and in the literature on popular ecology (Martinez-Alier 2014; Temper et al. 2018; Daré and Ba 2023; Cuadros 2018).
The scope and limits of these readings in terms of popular ecologism or subsistence (Pruvost 2021) call for further exploration of the motivations or causes defended, in their material, ontological, ideological, existential or spiritual dimensions. It is also a question of thinking about the links between social justice and justice for nature, or the way in which these approaches analyse responsibilities, translate relationships with nature (points of view of the other, perspectivism, etc.), or define cosmopolitics. Understanding and reporting on the effects, forms of reception and archival traces of collective action on living communities, and how they can help to redefine the interdependencies between humans and non-humans, means rethinking research methods, as hitherto implemented in the territories of the 'Nords'.
The aim is to contribute to the decolonisation of approaches to environmental justice (Alvarez and Coolsaet 2018), to gain a better understanding of the forms of transformation in which 'southern' countries are engaged, which are still less explored, and to take part in the learning that emerges from them with a view to nurturing knowledge and practices of environmental justice.
These days are intended to be stages in a process of reflection on the ethics of environmental justice research, and on the practices and knowledge involved in investigating groups - particularly in terms of the researcher's membership of the group under study. They will also contribute to the following questions, which form the basis of a broader work programme:
Axis 1: What registers, collective grammars and generic languages (of environmental justice, climate change, transition, transformation, domination, etc.) are used to express causes or demands, including in their specific contextual or territorial dimensions?
Axis 2 : Who are the actors in these forms of collective action? Do their characteristics tend to converge (in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, social class, age and generation, validity) or are they heterogeneous? Where do they draw their resources, means and capacity for action from (status, religious communities, networks, etc.)?
Axis 3 : What kind of alliances, power relations or even relationships of domination do they have with other players in civil society, institutions or scientific expertise? In what situations are they embodied? How do they relate to democratic institutions? Are they involved in strategies of participation, power-grabbing, standard-setting or rejection of the State? How do institutions respond to collective action?
Axis 4 : The legitimacy of these collectives to act is often one of the first arguments put forward in some areas. So how do the collectives build this legitimacy? Or do they make do with the absence of legitimacy? What role do research, scientific knowledge and forms of expertise play in the construction of forms of legitimacy for action?
Axis 5 : In situations of blatant environmental injustice, what explains the failure of certain groups to act? What structural or situational obstacles stand in the way? What strategies are at play in the absence of action, and what are the potential alternative forms of resistance? When and why are mobilisations ostensible or relatively discreet, "low-key" (Hayem 2020)? What forms of resistance have been observed, and do they draw their strength from their visibility or, on the contrary, from their hidden dimension (Thiann-Bo Morel and Roussary 2021)?
Bibliography
Álvarez, L. et Coolsaet B., 2018, Decolonizing Environmental Justice Studies : A Latin American Perspective. Capitalism Nature Socialism, pp. 1-20.
Cuadros, G. M., 2018, Ambientalismo popular, Ediciones desde abajo.
Daré, W. et Ba, A., 2023, Justice environnementale dans les espaces ruraux en Afrique, Ed. Quae
Grisoni, A. et Némoz, S., 2017, Les mouvements socio-écologistes, un objet pour la sociologie. Socio-logos – Revue de l’Association Française de Sociologie, (12).
Hayem, J., 2020, Les mobilisations à bas bruits à l’épreuve des terrains africains, Journal des anthropologues, 162-163, 245-249.
Malm, A. 2020. How to blow up a pipeline, Verso Books.
Martin, A., Armijos, M.T., Coolsaet, B., Dawson, N., AS Edwards, G., Few, R., Gross-Camp N., Rodriguez, I., Schroeder, H., GL Tebboth, M. and White, C.S., 2020, Environmental justice and transformations to sustainability, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 62(6), pp.19-30.
Martínez-Alier, J. L’écologisme des pauvres. Une étude des conflits environnementaux dans le monde, Ed. Les Petits matins/Inst. Veblen, 2014 [2002, trad. de l’espagnol par A. Verkaeren].
Pruvost, G., 2021, Quotidien politique: Féminisme, écologie, subsistance, La découverte.
Schlosberg, D., & Craven, L., 2019, Sustainable materialism: Environmental movements and the politics of everyday life, Oxford University Press.
Stevis, D., & Felli, R., 2020, Planetary just transition? How inclusive and how just? Earth System Governance, 6, 100065.
Temper, L., Walter, M., Rodriguez, I., Kothari, A., & Turhan, E., 2018, A perspective on radical transformations to sustainability: resistances, movements and alternatives. Sustainability Science, 13(3), 747-764.
Thiann-Bo Morel, M. et Roussary, A., 2022, Basculement des eaux et protection de la biodiversité – lecture postcoloniale et justice environnementale in Deldrève, C. et Candau, J. Effort environnemental et équité. Les politiques publiques de l’eau et de la biodiversité en France (pp. 403-445). Peter Lang.
Programme for 5 and 6 October 2023
These 2 days follow on from the first EEJJ seminar on collective action for environmental justice, which focused on the northern hemisphere (https://justiceenvironnementale.inrae.fr/seminaire/). Following these very rich exchanges, we wanted to devote this second round of discussions to the southern hemisphere, and in particular to Africa and the Middle East, where this theme has not yet been explored to any great extent. The issues addressed (above) are part of a wider research programme on the transformative capacity of collective action for environmental justice.
Thursday 5 October
9h30 : Welcome coffee
10h : Introduction of the EJJE network
10h15-12h45 : Mobilisation and extractivism in West Africa
Moderator : Mody Diaw (Doctoral student in sociology, ETTIS-INRAE-Université de Bordeaux)
With :
- Serigne Momar Sarr (Professor of Sociology, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar): "Communs et mobilisations sociales face aux impacts socio-écologiques des industries extractives au Sénégal : redevabilité en suspens ou ambivalence dans l'idée de justice environnementale?"
- Khadim Mbow (Doctoral student in sociology, Université Paris Cité): "Analysis of legitimacy conflicts, controversies and competition between scientific knowledge, experts, lay people and citizens: the case of the industrial areas of Mboro and Bargny in Senegal".
Shared lunch
14h-14h30 : Presentation of the book "Justice environnementale dans les espaces ruraux en Afrique" by W. Daré (sociology researcher, SENS-CIRAD Montpellier)
14h45-17h15 : Waste mobilisation and management in North Africa and the Middle East
Moderators : Bruno Bouet (researcher in sociology, ETTIS-INRAE) and Maxence Mautray (PhD student in sociology, PAV-CED, University of Bordeaux)
With :
- Christophe Maroun (Project Manager, Environmental Justice) & Heinrich Böll (Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon): "Waste in Lebanon: How an environmental crisis has transformed the political and social landscape".
- Maha Bouhlel (Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Manouba, Tunisia): "Waste management as a symbol of environmental injustice in Tunisia".mbole d’injustice environnementale en Tunisie"
Friday 6 October
9h : Welcme coffee
9h30-12h30 : Round table on discrete, prevented mobilisations and other forms of resistance
Moderator : Marie Thiann Bo Morel (Maître de conférences en sociologie, Espace-Dev, Université de la Réunion)
With :
- Valelia Muni Toke (Chercheure en anthropologie, Sedyl, CNRS-IRD, Villejuif)
- Pablo Corral Broto (Senior lecturer in history, Université de la Réunion)
- Aby Ba (Doctoral student in Political Science, Gaston Berger University, Senegal): "Discreet mobilisation in the face of worsening ecological vulnerability in Africa: the case of Senegal"
- Serigne A. Lahat Ndiaye (Doctoral student in sociology, SENS-IRD-University of Montpellier): "Instrumentalising agricultural issues in the context of conversion in the peri-urban area of Dakar (Senegal): village mobilisations between prejudices and strategies for claiming land"
Shared lunch
14h-15h : Conclusions and feedback on the EJJE network (assessment-projects)
15h15-17h15 : Session to organise a network and conference (in 2025) on Environmental Justice in Africa (M. Diaw and W. Daré coord.)
Practical information:
Place : amphi INRAE-Nouvelle Aquitaine
50 Avenue de Verdun 33610 Cestas
Registration (free) required : link form
Rapid access via Gare Gazinet Cestas 10 minutes from Gare Saint-Jean in Bordeaux; or if preferred by tram B towards Pessac - car pooling will be organised from the Unitec stop.)
Or by zoom (a link will be sent when you register)
