Showing papers on "Economic Justice published in 2020"

Socialising tourism for social and ecological justice after COVID-19

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic of 2019–2020 has the potential to transform the tourism industry as well as the context in which it operates. This global crisis in which travel, tourism, hospitality and even...

Urban nature in a time of crisis: recreational use of green space increases during the COVID-19 outbreak in Oslo, Norway

Abstract: The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it significant changes to human mobility patterns and working environments. We aimed to explore how social distancing measures affected recreational use of urban green space during the partial lockdown in Oslo, Norway. Mobile tracking data from thousands of recreationists were used to analyze high resolution spatio-temporal changes in activity. We estimated that outdoor recreational activity increased by 291% during lockdown relative to a 3-yr average for the same days. This increase was significantly greater than expected after adjusting for the prevailing weather and time of year and equates to approx. 86,000 extra activities per day over the municipality (population of 690,000). Both pedestrians (walking, running, hiking) and cyclists appeared to intensify activity on trails with higher greenviews and tree canopy cover, but with differences in response modulated by trail accessibility and social distancing preferences. The magnitude of increase was positively associated with trail remoteness, suggesting that green spaces facilitated social distancing and indirectly mitigated the spread of COVID-19. Finally, pedestrian activity increased in city parks, peri-urban forest, as well as protected areas, highlighting the importance of access to green open spaces that are interwoven within the built-up matrix. These findings shed new light on the value of urban nature as resilience infrastructure during a time of crisis. The current pandemic also reveals some important dilemmas we might face regarding green justice on the path towards urban planning for future sustainable cities.

ENOUGH: COVID-19, Structural Racism, Police Brutality, Plutocracy, Climate Change-and Time for Health Justice, Democratic Governance, and an Equitable, Sustainable Future.

Abstract: COVID-19 starkly reveals how structural injustice cuts short the lives of people subjected to systemic racism and economic deprivation.2-4 It is not, however, the only crisis at hand. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print August 20, 2020: e1-e4. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305886).

Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions

Abstract: Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.

Expanding the Boundaries of Justice in Urban Greening Scholarship: Toward an Emancipatory, Antisubordination, Intersectional, and Relational Approach

Abstract: Supported by a large body of scholarship, it is increasingly orthodox practice for cities to deploy urban greening interventions to address diverse socioenvironmental challenges, from protecting ur...

Contextualizing the Covid-19 pandemic for a carbon-constrained world: Insights for sustainability transitions, energy justice, and research methodology

Abstract: The global Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly overwhelmed our societies, shocked the global economy and overburdened struggling health care systems and other social institutions around the world. While such impacts of Covid-19 are becoming clearer, the implications of the disease for energy and climate policy are more prosaic. This Special Section seeks to offer more clarity on the emerging connections between Covid-19 and energy supply and demand, energy governance, future low-carbon transitions, social justice, and even the practice of research methodology. It features articles that ask, and answer: What are the known and anticipated impacts of Covid-19 on energy demand and climate change? How has the disease shaped institutional responses and varying energy policy frameworks, especially in Africa? How will the disease impact ongoing social practices, innovations and sustainability transitions, including not only renewable energy but also mobility? How might the disease, and social responses to it, exacerbate underlying patterns of energy poverty, energy vulnerability, and energy injustice? Lastly, what challenges and insights does the pandemic offer for the practice of research, and for future research methodology? We find that without careful guidance and consideration, the brave new age wrought by Covid-19 could very well collapse in on itself with bloated stimulus packages that counter sustainability goals, misaligned incentives that exacerbate climate change, the entrenchment of unsustainable practices, and acute and troubling consequences for vulnerable groups.

On the apparent conflict between individual and group fairness

Abstract: A distinction has been drawn in fair machine learning research between 'group' and 'individual' fairness measures. Many technical research papers assume that both are important, but conflicting, and propose ways to minimise the trade-offs between these measures. This paper argues that this apparent conflict is based on a misconception. It draws on discussions from within the fair machine learning research, and from political and legal philosophy, to argue that individual and group fairness are not fundamentally in conflict. First, it outlines accounts of egalitarian fairness which encompass plausible motivations for both group and individual fairness, thereby suggesting that there need be no conflict in principle. Second, it considers the concept of individual justice, from legal philosophy and jurisprudence, which seems similar but actually contradicts the notion of individual fairness as proposed in the fair machine learning literature. The conclusion is that the apparent conflict between individual and group fairness is more of an artefact of the blunt application of fairness measures, rather than a matter of conflicting principles. In practice, this conflict may be resolved by a nuanced consideration of the sources of 'unfairness' in a particular deployment context, and the carefully justified application of measures to mitigate it.

Blind-sided by privacy? Digital contact tracing, the Apple/Google API and big tech's newfound role as global health policy makers.

Abstract: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, governments have turned their attention to digital contact tracing. In many countries, public debate has focused on the risks this technology poses to privacy, with advocates and experts sounding alarm bells about surveillance and mission creep reminiscent of the post 9/11 era. Yet, when Apple and Google launched their contact tracing API in April 2020, some of the world's leading privacy experts applauded this initiative for its privacy-preserving technical specifications. In an interesting twist, the tech giants came to be portrayed as greater champions of privacy than some democratic governments. This article proposes to view the Apple/Google API in terms of a broader phenomenon whereby tech corporations are encroaching into ever new spheres of social life. From this perspective, the (legitimate) advantage these actors have accrued in the sphere of the production of digital goods provides them with (illegitimate) access to the spheres of health and medicine, and more worrisome, to the sphere of politics. These sphere transgressions raise numerous risks that are not captured by the focus on privacy harms. Namely, a crowding out of essential spherical expertise, new dependencies on corporate actors for the delivery of essential, public goods, the shaping of (global) public policy by non-representative, private actors and ultimately, the accumulation of decision-making power across multiple spheres. While privacy is certainly an important value, its centrality in the debate on digital contact tracing may blind us to these broader societal harms and unwittingly pave the way for ever more sphere transgressions.

What makes climate change adaptation effective? A systematic review of the literature

Abstract: Increased understanding of global warming and documentation of its observable impacts have led to the development of adaptation responses to climate change around the world. A necessary, but often missing, component of adaptation involves the assessment of outcomes and impact. Through a systematic review of research literature, I categorize 110 adaptation initiatives that have been implemented and shown some degree of effectiveness. I analyze the ways in which these activities have been documented as effective using five indicators: reducing risk and vulnerability, developing resilient social systems, improving the environment, increasing economic resources, and enhancing governance and institutions. The act of cataloging adaptation activities produces insights for current and future climate action in two main areas: understanding common attributes of adaptation initiatives reported to be effective in current literature; and identifying gaps in adaptation research and practice that address equality, justice, and power dynamics.

Care work: dreaming disability justice

Abstract: Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice is a collection of visionary essays on vibrant organizing for Disability Justice that is gathering momentum across the unceded and occupied Indigenous territo...

From Transportation Equity to Transportation Justice: Within, Through, and Beyond the State:

Abstract: Transportation policies, plans, and projects all flow through state institutions because of the substantial cost of infrastructure and the need to assess transportation system performance, includin...

Energy justice revisited: A critical review on the philosophical and political origins of equality

Abstract: Energy justice has reached a critical mass of contributions in recent years; nevertheless, different definitions of what energy justice is, appear to be competing, or at least they seem to be devoid of a theoretical effort at systematization of the concepts, an effort which could find a common theoretical root underpinning the current energy justice definitions. While tracing a common theoretical root might appear unnecessary to some, we argue that it contributes to strengthening the concept of energy justice and improves its suitability to application in policy design and policy evaluation. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap, discussing how energy justice is embedded in the tradition of philosophical and political thought, with reference to the concept of equality. Further, we discuss the implications of this thesis.

People in transitions: Energy citizenship, prosumerism and social movements in Europe

Abstract: Active energy citizens are leading energy transitions, co-producing new cultures, practices and structures of production and consumption. This article aims to understand if prosumerism – the collective participation of prosumers in energy projects with social, economic and environmental benefits to society – can be referred to as a social movement. The article draws on a review of Social Movements Theory and applies thematic analysis to characterize 46 prosumer initiatives in Europe. The collective identities, socio-political opponents, knowledge-making activities, collective learning, and collective action aspects of these prosumers are described. The results show that prosumer initiatives converge towards a transformative social movement. This movement upholds decentralized renewable energy production and consumption, and presents itself as a socially inclusive, transparent and participatory energy model, replicable across the globe, in what can be described as a collective action towards a decentralized democratic energy model. The discussion highlights relationships between prosumerism and framings such as energy justice (including energy poverty and gender issues), energy democracy, climate change action and anti-nuclear movements, to reach a conclusion considering the relevance of calling prosumerism a social movement, while opening up some avenues for future research.

Transition tensions: mapping conflicts in movements for a just and sustainable transition

Abstract: The concept of a ‘just transition’ positions justice concerns of workers, front-line communities, and other marginalized groups at the center of sustainability efforts However, related scholarship

The false promise of risk assessments: epistemic reform and the limits of fairness

Abstract: Risk assessments have proliferated in the United States criminal justice system. The theory of change motivating their adoption involves two key assumptions: first, that risk assessments will reduce human biases by making objective decisions, and second, that risk assessments will promote criminal justice reform. In this paper I interrogate both of these assumptions, concluding that risk assessments are an ill-advised tool for challenging the centrality and legitimacy of incarceration within the criminal justice system. First, risk assessments fail to provide objectivity, as their use creates numerous sites of discretion. Second, risk assessments provide no guarantee of reducing incarceration; instead, they risk legitimizing the criminal justice system's structural racism. I then consider, via an "epistemic reform," the path forward for criminal justice reform. I reinterpret recent results regarding the "impossibility of fairness" as not simply a tension between mathematical metrics but as evidence of a deeper tension between notions of equality. This expanded frame challenges the formalist, colorblind proceduralism at the heart of the criminal justice system and suggests a more structural approach to reform. Together, this analysis highlights how algorithmic fairness narrows the scope of judgments about justice and how "fair" algorithms can reinforce discrimination.

The missing stone in the Cathedral: Of unfair terms in employment contracts and coexisting rationalities in European contract law

Abstract: This dissertation attempts to partially refocus the debate on unfair terms control, exploring the contribution that the emergence of unfair terms control in employment contracts in two legal systems can make to articulating the respective positions of judicial control, regulation and justice in contract law. By reconstructing the developments preceding the adoption of rules allowing judicial control of non-negotiated employment contracts in France and Germany, the book focusses on judicial control as a response to contractualisation of employment relations. Such contractualisation – in itself a combination of broad trends in labour law, doctrinal developments and, increasingly, HR practices – is paralleled to the movements which, at the outset of the 20th century, gave rise to the notion of contrat d’adhesion. Employers have good reasons to use the contract as a tool: to customise the contents of the employment relationship, to include elements of flexibilisation and to put in place dispute-management procedures. This increases the saliency of contracts, and contract law, in employment relations. Such success of contract law as a means of managing unequal relations calls for a reconsideration of its basic tenets, and in particular of what corrective justice means between the parties concerned. Judicial control is, in this sense, a first step towards such reconsideration.

Energy efficiency as energy justice: addressing racial inequities through investments in people and places

Abstract: Structural racism in the form of racial residential segregation and the series of laws, policies and practices that continue to reinforce it, has robbed generations of African Americans of socioeconomic opportunity, wealth accumulation, safe, secure or energy-efficient housing, and full societal inclusion. Research indicates that African Americans are more likely to live in older, energy inefficient homes with structural deficiencies, outdated appliances and faulty energy systems. These conditions lead to a disproportionate burden of energy insecurity, defined as "the inability to adequately meet household energy needs" among African Americans across the economic spectrum. This, in turn, generates increased costs and decreased comfort, conditions closely linked to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Persistent income inequality, wealth gaps and entrenched racial residential segregation have disenfranchised African Americans and reduced their ability to escape this pernicious cycle. Weatherization, which is the practice of protecting a building's interior from the elements while enhancing its energy efficiency and reducing costs, could be a catalyst for reducing the disproportionate energy burden affecting low-income individuals and ultimately improve health and social outcomes among African Americans. We argue for investing in policies that provide energy efficiency and weatherization assistance -- and not only energy bill assistance -- to provide a long-term and equitable solution to energy insecurity that is also a critical step toward restorative justice.

Reassessing the Ethics of Molecular HIV Surveillance in the Era of Cluster Detection and Response: Toward HIV Data Justice

Abstract: In the United States, clinical HIV data reported to surveillance systems operated by jurisdictional departments of public health are re-used for epidemiology and prevention. In 2018, all jurisdictions began using HIV genetic sequence data from clinical drug resistance tests to identify people living with HIV in "clusters" of others with genetically similar strains. This is called "molecular HIV surveillance" (MHS). In 2019, "cluster detection and response" (CDR) programs that re-use MHS data became the "fourth pillar" of the national HIV strategy. Public health re-uses of HIV data are done without consent and are a source of concern among stakeholders. This article presents three cases that illuminate bioethical challenges associated with re-uses of clinical HIV data for public health. We focus on evidence-base, risk-benefit ratio, determining directionality of HIV transmission, consent, and ethical re-use. The conclusion offers strategies for "HIV data justice." The essay contributes to a "bioethics of the oppressed."

Does time colonise intergenerational environmental justice theory

Abstract: The idea of time is critical to intergenerational environmental justice (IEJ). Focusing on time as discrete instantiations on a forward projection limits the capacity of IEJ to theorise justice for...

Social Work during the COVID-19 Crisis: Responding to Urgent Social Needs

Abstract: Social work during the COVID-19 crisis has faced one of the most challenging times to cover urgent social needs in an uncertain scenario. This study analyzes the immediate responses in social work to vulnerable groups in the first 15 days of the pandemic in Barcelona, one of the most affected areas worldwide by COVID-19. The sample for this qualitative study includes 23 semi-structured interviews with social workers from different fields of intervention, from general approaches (primary care) to specific ones (health, ageing, homeless, and justice). The data analysis followed the communicative methodology, including transformative and exclusionary dimensions, and the analytical categories focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social services users, the organizational responses of social workers, and the impact of the interventions to cover urgent social needs of attendees. The interventions have been accompanied by an improvement in communication channels with vulnerable groups, ensuring an understanding of the situation of families and individuals, and covering the most urgent social needs. The study shows the key role of social workers from diverse social attention tools and their contribution to the sustainability of social services with a long-term impact.

A framework for implementing socially just climate adaptation

Abstract: The previous two decades of scholarship devoted to the role of social justice in climate change adaptation have established an important theoretical basis to evaluate the concept of just adaptation, or, in other words, how the implementation of climate adaptation policy affects socially vulnerable groups. This paper synthesizes insights from relevant literature on urban climate change governance, climate adaptation, urban planning, social justice theory, and policy implementation to develop three propositions concerning the conditions that must occur to implement just adaptation. First, just adaptation requires the inclusion of socially vulnerable populations as full participants with agency to shape the decisions that affect them. Second, just adaptation requires that adaptation framings explicitly recognize the causes of systemic injustice. Third, just adaptation requires a focus on incremental evaluations of implementation to avoid timeframes inconsistent with advancing justice. We then integrate the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) with the just adaptation literature to develop a framework to evaluate the implementation of climate adaptation. We present two novel modifications to the ACF aimed at fostering policy analysis of the previously presented three propositions for implementation of just adaptation.

Is green a Pan-African colour? Mapping African renewable energy policies and transitions in 34 countries

Abstract: Renewable Energy (RE) is rapidly gaining relevance as a key technology to quench growing energy demand on the African continent. Many African states have introduced RE legislation, but the design of RE policy instruments, as well as their application and efficiency vary considerably across African economies. This article presents an analysis of energy transition processes based on a comparative mapping of African renewable energy policies in 34 countries. We discuss these developments with respect to their justice dimension, following up on the recent debate on distributive, recognitional, and procedural energy justice. We not only provide evidence of African energy policies covering recognitional and distributive justice, but also identify potential trade-offs between strong market orientation and justice concerns. We embed our findings in the debates on a “just transition” and on “energy justice” that have emerged as recent outcomes of the transition management literature travelling to the Global South.

Towards a new social science research agenda for hydrogen transitions: Social practices, energy justice, and place attachment

Abstract: In recent years hydrogen has been repositioned as potentially playing an important role in the decarbonisation of global energy consumption, particularly the decarbonisation of heat. Reflecting a recognition that public support will be central to its success or failure, a body of research has emerged investigating public perceptions of hydrogen in a range of different contexts. The majority of this research has followed quantitative, positivist understandings of human behaviour and has attempted to pinpoint specific factors that determine hydrogen acceptance. This article proposes a different research agenda for hydrogen transitions, one that is necessary and urgent due to hydrogen's introduction to domestic gas supplies as a fuel for homes. The article argues that the approaches of current hydrogen perceptions research have a limited ability to understand and interpret the social and economic transformations that may occur as a result of this change. In doing so, it identifies and conceptualises three areas for further research: how hydrogen has the potential to impact gas-energised social practices of heating and cooking in the home; how it may shift lived experiences of fuel poverty and energy injustice; and how it may disrupt or enhance place attachments of the communities within which it will begin to be deployed. To illustrate the argument, the article presents findings from a research project exploring public perceptions of hydrogen blending in the United Kingdom. Drawing on these findings, it is shown how researching the potential impacts of emerging hydrogen transitions will require a broader and deeper engagement with theories of social practice, energy justice, and place attachment. The article concludes by summarising the implications of the argument for hydrogen researchers and pointing towards the challenges and opportunities of a new social science research agenda for hydrogen.