Seite 220 [220]
218 GYULA NAGY
media — air, soil, water, etc. — have different characteristics, and the spreading of
an injustice (contamination) is different, and the caused harm and damage differ
accordingly. The spatial situation may mitigate, or conversely, reinforce the
perceived negative processes. Therefore, a place-specific environmental study and
the inferences drawn from it contribute to the formulation of the right responses.
By exploring the current state, the presence or absence of justice can be defined
on the basis of a momentary state of society, without considering the temporal
dimension; that is, a moment torn from the process of evolution is described. It
is therefore possible that what is momentarily regarded as just may appear more
unjust in a historical or geographical context than found earlier (Capeheart —
Milovanovic 2007). In other words, environmental justice and injustice also have
a context in time and space. Interpreted statically, this provides answers to the
questions of where and when, and interpreted structurally, it answers the questions
of why and how, based on the underlying processes, power relations, and historical
embeddedness, which in turn largely influence the spatiality of social relations.
In order to terminate a state and situation of injustice or to alleviate it in any
way, the population needs to be involved in the pertinent legal, political, and
special decision-making and implementation processes irrespective of gender, age,
origin, identity, or income. Justice is in the interest of the whole of society; therefore,
its realization requires the broadest possible involvement. Justice results when the
concepts of what is environmentally safe and healthy, as well as just and equitable,
can emerge from a common denominator. However, it is still necessary to use
“objective” perspectives and tools and methods of measurement Environmental
justice not only explores unequal, unjust or inequitable states, but also wishes to
offer solutions to them, hence it is a method of intervention.
Summary
Environmental justice as a conceptual framework emerged in parallel with the
civil rights movements of the 1960s. It then underwent several transformations
and the expansion of the tools available to research. The academic literature reveals
that in addition to the earlier injustice studies of one-sided and unifocal allocation
and distribution (distributive justice), there is equal emphasis today on the
exploration of the processes which cause the emergence of injustice (procedural
justice) and on the individual’s subjective perception and recognition of it
(recognitional justice). Studies in environmental justice basically concentrate on
three interrelated elements: justice as a concept, the process, and the set of evidence
which reveals the injustice or the restoration of justice. The concept of environmental
justice is thus complex, comprising more than just the composition of words of
environment and justice.
The environment means the material world around us, the built and natural
surroundings, the connected intangible world, and our own mental environment
and that of our group, as well as the network of our social, economic and political
relations. Some critics claim that inequalities arising from the exploitation of
nature, the restricting of access to a quality environment are not the outcome of
the limitedness and non-renewable character of the natural environment, but that
they are caused by technological imperfections and by inadequate justice in society