Diverse voices, sticky maps and wicked patterns. Using creative methods to explore environmental justice

Authors

Clare Saunders, University of Exeter, CornwallFollow
Daksha Patel, Creative Fellow, University of Exeter, CornwallFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0003-4995-4967

Pages

1-29

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.25779/4w51-hn68

Abstract

Environmental justice is multi-faceted. It is distributional, procedural and context inter-dependent. Achieving environmental justice therefore requires transdisciplinary thinking and collaborative practice with participants holding a variety of experiences and knowledges. This paper explores the different meanings of environmental justice in theory, and through artistic practices. It introduces and evaluates a series of creative workshops designed to enhance understanding of environmental justice. The workshops consisted of 1) image-informed co-created cross-national Zoom conversations; 2) using colours and shapes to tease out meanings of environmental justice; and 3) mapping local environmental injustices while centring more-than-humans. It proposes that these creative methods are useful for capturing the meaning of environmental justice and the challenges of attaining it. We consider that our creative methods hold promise for engaging wider communities in projects to foreground environmental justice in decision-making, helping to expose the complexities in distributional injustice as well as injustices to more-than-humans. We also believe that such methods hold promise for achieving parity in participation, so reducing procedural environmental injustice.

Recommended Citation

Saunders, Clare, and Daksha Patel. "Diverse voices, sticky maps and wicked patterns. Using creative methods to explore environmental justice." Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts, vol. 4, 2024 , pp. 1-29. DOI: 10.25779/4w51-hn68