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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE 219
incapable of adequately using the resources and distributing the advantages and
disadvantages appropriately.
Justice is a normative and subjective concept which adapts to the given relations
and is defined by the community within the frame of a social contract. Justice has
geographical frequency and distribution, which depend on processes. The
perception of injustice is influenced by the sociocultural and income factors of
the individual and the community.
The processes leading to injustice can be examined in terms of decisions and
temporality. Top-down processes often ignore the everyday practices, customs and
local techniques of adaptation. This can be expressly detrimental, if the acting
institutions regard certain formed systems (whether or not they are power relations,
e.g. sub- and super-ordinations) as unalterable. Those affected by environmental
injustices apply a peculiar decision-making mechanism, for each actor has a status¬
based value system, knowledge and written and unwritten rules, based on which
they act. Conflict situations arise when the acting mechanisms of the actors result
in different decisions. This explains why sometimes the reaction of the (presumably)
altruistic decision-makers in their intent to help does not satisfy the population’s
expectations. Individuals and groups have various attitudes to environmental
injustices which may change in time upon the influence of certain factors (e.g. an
educational campaign). The changing of the subjective evaluation of a given process
can also correlate with the injustice of perception and recognition.
Environmental injustices occur in multiscale geographical space in which the
scales and diverse spatial units are in incessant interaction, continuously influencing
one another.
Fair
distribution of
nature-borne
risks
G)
Environmental
Justice
(4) (5) (6)
Healthy Involvement in
liveable the decision¬
environment making
(1) process (2)
Figure 6. Three pillars of environmental justice based on the EPA definition.
Source: author.
To conclude: the study of environmental justice is concerned with the exploration
of the impairment of the rights to a healthy environment (1) caused by certain
decisions (2), and by processes (3). In the course of research, one must take into
account that the applied concepts are subjective and hence the study must be based