Institute of Development Studies
Bio
Author Biography
Amber Huff is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, UK where she is co-leader of the Resource Politics and Environmental Change Research Cluster and director of the Centre for Future Natures. She is a social anthropologist and political ecologist, and her research areas include the politics of environmental change, international conservation, extractive conflicts, and the new commons
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Bio
Author Biography
Lars Otto Naess is a Research Fellow and co-leader of the Resource Politics and Environmental Research Change Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies, UK. He is a social scientist with 25 years’ experience of climate change, development, and agriculture. His research centres on the social and institutional dimensions of tackling climate change in a multi-risk context, political economy of policy processes on climate change at national and subnational levels, and the role of local knowledge for adaptation to climate change. He is domain editor for Climate and Development for WIREs Climate Change, and associate editor of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Volume 53
Number 4
Published: December 6, 2022
This issue of the IDS Bulletin brings together a range of empirically grounded studies that add to – and challenge – contemporary debates on climate and environmental justice. Despite a growing focus on justice dimensions of climate and environmental change, we argue that there are still ‘blind spots’ in mainstream debates that warrant increased attention. In this brief introduction, we point to three in particular: first, a persistent failure to recognise diverse contexts and knowledges; second, a continuing failure to sufficiently appreciate the deep-seated contestations around climate and environmental justice; and third, the risks associated with ‘recovery’ and ‘emergency’ mindsets driving climate and environmental policy agendas. The articles in this collection illustrate and exemplify these issues in different ways and from a variety of methodological, philosophical, and interdisciplinary approaches and positionalities. We argue for a reframing of climate and environmental justice debates and suggest some key principles to make these ‘hidden’ aspects more visible in policy and practice.