Developing Environmental Justice in the Australian Context

Abstract

Australian environmental justice scholarship has relied heavily on the theoretical tenets established in the US and internationally. The transposing of these concepts onto the Australian context has been useful for helping to establish an understanding of where instances of environmental injustice are occurring and what pathways might be available to support vulnerable communities. However in relying on frameworks established overseas and in circumstance very different to our own Australian environmental justice scholars have not yet captured the particularities of locality place and context in how Australian communities are experiencing environmental injustice. The aim of this thesis is to formulate an approach to environmental justice research in the Australian context that does not start from the existing environmental justice frameworks. This research examines the methodological approaches that may facilitate a ground up understanding of environmental justice in Australia. It asks what might a distinctly Australian environmental justice framework look like based on the actual lived experiences of environmental injustice as articulated by Australian communities.