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This article takes an autobiographical approach in describing the evolution of the equity and environmental justice debate. The intent is not only to provide a historical approach in identifying the emerging research and policy questions, but also to describe the author's own scholarly growth in studying them.

This paper aims to argue that climate justice constitutes a contested discourse reflecting the material interests of social groups that contribute to its production. For climate justice to have integrity, it must be rooted in the material interests of those social groups negatively affected by, and engaged in struggles against, the hydrocarbon economy. The paper locates contestation of discourse production in an understanding of social movement processes.

The paper is a theoretical contribution to the debate about climate justice, drawing on data (published and unpublished) from Scotland.

The paper concludes that scholars engaged in climate justice work should have consideration to the material interest embedded in the discourse. The pedagogical and dialogical work of engagement with the militant particularism of local struggles against the hydrocarbon industry is an important contribution to discourse construction, and ultimately social transformation is required to achieve climate justice.

This is primarily a theoretical paper, although it draws on limited case study data from environmental conflicts in Scotland.

The argument has practical implications for work in climate justice, including research, policy development and social movement mobilisation.

This is intended as a contribution to the social transformation required to achieve climate justice.

The paper draws on existing theoretical frameworks, especially Marxian approaches to discourse and social movement studies, to critique and contribute to the newly developing field of climate justice.

There is growing interest in diversity in the environmental field. The issue has become more pertinent as country undergoes noticeable demographic changes. Researchers have been interested in diversity for sometime too. This chapter traces the evolution of research on diversity and the environment. It discusses the results of new studies examining students' attitudes toward their work in environmental organizations as well as their salary expectations. The chapter also analyzes the demographic characteristics of the leadership of environmental institutions as well as their hiring and recruiting practices.

Purpose – Many cities are located in coastal areas and many of them are identified as prone to climate change impacts, especially sea level rise and floods. Master plans of cities can feature responses to these challenges, as in the case of Jakarta's master plan 2010–2030. However, as this chapter will argue, the top-down nature of planning would likely produce, reproduce, or reaffirm unjust urban geographies in the name of climate change adaptation. North Jakarta and its coastal area, which were prone to climate change risks, has been home for more than 40,000 poor households, most of which live in houses less than 50m2 in informal settlements with lack of basic needs infrastructures. This chapter addresses the question, “How are poor communities in the north coast of Jakarta affected by extreme weather events, and how are their everyday experiences addressed in master plan Jakarta 2010–2030?”

Methodology/approach – Analysis is based on community profiles, census information, and a workshop with representatives of these communities. This chapter will also analyze relevant parts of Jakarta's 2010–2030 master plan. The discussion covers the following: (1) the making of place-based communities of the urban poor in the north coast of Jakarta compared to the master plan, and (2) the impact of climate change on the urban poor's livelihoods in the north coast.

Findings – The current master plan 2010–2030 features plans to mitigate climate change and environmental risks for the coastal area, especially sea level rise, land subsidence, and pollution. The study reveals that North Jakarta communities were unaware of what the city planners have drafted, but most of them realized climate challenges based on their everyday experience. They aspired to be involved in the planning process, but their informal status hampered their opportunity to be heard.

Originality/value of chapter – Rather than looking at how Jakarta as a city is affected by climate change, this chapter focuses on specific communities in North Jakarta that are prone to climate change-induced risks. Climate change impacts are spatially unequal, and even in the same region that theoretically bears the same risks, the impact distribution of climate change can be unequal for different social groups. The chapter also questions the ability of urban planning to respond to these challenges when planning practice itself has not yet taken into account citizens’ social awareness and participation meaningfully.

This study aims to present the perspectives of heterodox economics and Islamic economics on environmental economics, as an alternative to mainstream economics, which takes economic growth as its main objective and argues that environmental problems will largely disappear when economic growth is achieved.

In this study, there was no intention to conduct a detailed analysis of heterodox economic models and Islamic economics. Instead, the approaches to the “environment,” which can be considered as an urgent need of the planet, were evaluated, and the inadequate proposals of the mainstream economics’ environmental approach were theoretically criticized and heterodox economics and Islamic economics were proposed as an alternative model.

Heterodox and Islamic economics offer alternative models of development prioritizing social and ecological justice to address environmental problems, which is in contrast to mainstream economics’ narrow focus on market mechanisms and individual rationality. Thus, engaging in more dialogue in the context of the environment is inevitable for both schools, considering the vast geography inhabited by Muslims and the proposed heterodox economic policies, and moreover, these approaches are modeled for the first time.

This article presents a synthesis of Islamic economics and heterodox thinking in contrast to mainstream economic policy, highlighting their similarities and differences and providing a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities and potential solutions of environmental problems. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this approach has not been previously explored, making it an original contribution to the literature.

This paper aims to contribute to the ethical debate over roles and responsibilities to address the injustices of climate change and its impacts. The current impasse over taking action may lie in the very different ways people view the world and their place in it. The aim is to explore some profound contradictions within differing strands of knowledge feeding into common understandings of climate justice.

A literature review of appropriate peer-reviewed and “grey” literature was conducted with a view to defining the term “climate justice”.

In addition to there being no single, clear definition of climate justice, a fundamental schism was found between what indigenous peoples want to see happen and what industrialised nations can do with respect to both the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.

One limitation to defining climate justice, and reason for publishing, is the lack of peer-reviewed work on this topic.

This paper has many practical implications, the most fundamental of which is the need to reach a consensus over rights to the Earth’s resources. If humanity, within which there are many societies, chooses to follow a truly equitable path post 2015, industrialised countries and corporations will need to move away from “endless growth economics”. The ways in which climate justice might be operationalised in future are considered, including the concept of a “climate-justice” checklist.

While the reconciliation proposed in this paper might be considered idealistic, unless it is acknowledged the Earth’s resources are limited, over-exploited and for all people to use sustainably, thus requiring a reduction in consumption by individuals relatively affluent in global terms, climate negotiators will continue talking about the same issues without achieving meaningful change.

Sustainable luxury has often been seen to offer both environmental sustainability and the possibility for innovative entrepreneurial development of natural and cultural heritage. The possibility and challenges of sustainable luxury tourism for Indigenous groups have been discussed by Poelina and Nordensvärd (2018) at some length by including a cultural governance perspective that brings culture and nature together. They stressed how protecting our shared human heritage and human culture can be aligned with a new wave of sustainable luxury tourism. To achieve this, we need to create links to both management and protection of landscapes and ecosystems as vital parts of heritage protection and social development. This chapter explores how and why we need to integrate social sustainability into sustainable luxury tourism, where we can foresee potential pitfalls and conceptualise nature-based and Indigenous tourism to empower local Indigenous communities and provide them with sustainable employment, economic development and community services. The sustainable tourism model provides brokerage necessary to strengthen their capacity for innovation, entrepreneurship and transformational change. This transformational change requires tourist visitors and non-Indigenous tourism operators to be open to a new experience with Indigenous guides and tourism operators to see, share and learn how to feel ‘Country’ (Poelina, 2016; Poelina & Nordensvärd, 2018). We will use Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) and its communities in Kimberley (Western Australia) as a case study to develop a sociocultural sustainable luxury tourism framework that includes governance, legal and management and social policy perspective.

The present study evaluates the principal forms of socioenvironmental damage suffered by local traditional populations and indigenous communities as a result of the installation and operation of the Pecém Industrial and Shipping Complex. The main problem being pollution in the municipalities of São Gonçalo do Amarante and Caucaia, which is in the Brazilian state of Ceará. As a theoretical framework, we use the concept of “environmental justice,” and “environmental racism.” The latter were used to understand the process of “deterritorialization” of these communities that resulted in extensive impacts on the natural environment, as well as the way of life and productive practices of these communities. Our analyses confirm the destruction of the means that allow noncapitalist exploitation of natural resources, such as artisanal fisheries, subsistence farming, and the use of commons. We show how all these processes are constitutive of environmental injustice and environmental racism. These may contribute to the organization of the resistance and struggle of the affected populations, namely indigenous peoples and traditional communities.

Social, spatial and environmental justice are inseparable, and key for sustainable urban development. The city is the cradle of innovation and production. Also, the city is the site of riots, where protesters demand their right to access services and resources. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: Why do plans to resolve urban ills in developing countries fail to deliver and achieve social justice?

This paper investigates weaknesses, limitations and outcomes of planning processes in a developing country. The author used two qualitative research tools: document analysis augmented with informal interviews. The author uses Egypt as a case study in an attempt to answer this question. The author reviewed two types of documents: official reports that the Egyptian authorities produced and donor agencies prepared plus both published and unpublished research. Interviewees are those who participated in elaborating and executing urban plans and policies.

Achieving social, spatial and environmental justice is amongst the reasons for planning metropolitan areas and their regions. Unfortunately, rarely plans accomplish social, spatial or environmental justice. Institutional setup is the reason for failed urban planning – institutional failures lead to both policy and market failures, thus complicating urban problems.

Approved plans must have the power of legislation, and planners need to reclaim their authority and autonomy, which requires regulating the profession. Planning education must be at the graduate level and available to other disciplines, such as economics, public administration, law and the like. Planners must acquire the following competencies: technical competencies for analytical actions; hermeneutic competencies for communicative actions; and critical competencies to observe professional ethics. They must emancipate themselves from their bias to enlighten and empower their constituents.

The purpose of the study is to review some of the existing gaps in the third-generation of critical environmental justice (EJ) research and then propose promising combinations of theoretical concepts by adjoining (EJ) literature with other bodies of work with the use of qualitative research methods.

This paper is a critique of the third-generation of critical EJ literature. It demonstrates how the scope of this scholarship, particularly the third world EJ studies, can be expanded further by deploying various combinations of other theories and qualitative research methods.

Conceptually, this paper provides insights into the new directions that third world EJ theory can take by drawing from other bodies of work including the developmental state, caste, waste, informal sector and labor studies within its fold. Methodologically, the paper shows why and how qualitative research methods including single and multiple case study, participatory action research and ethnography can assist in developing these new integrations between theories.

This research calls for the need to conduct studies in each of the new research dimension suggested in this paper in novel empirical spaces. Such studies will enable the practice of EJ and will help to advance the field of EJ scholarship forward.

Analysis of new research combinations with qualitative research methods in new empirical spaces might create scope for practicing EJ in such spaces where various forms of environmental injustices prevail.

This paper identifies gaps in the third-generation of critical EJ research and proposes new research directions by combining other theories and qualitative methods.