Broadening democracy against environmental justice: The example of Montreal borough councils

Abstract

In this reflection, through observation of citizen participation in several local Montreal municipal councils, I examine whether and how people discuss environmental issues. More specifically, I seek to determine whether the politicization of environmental issues favours the expression of environmental justice. I use this term to refer to the social dimension of environmental questions, given that people of different social classes or identities are not affected by environmental issues in the same way. Does the politicization of environmental issues reproduce an unjust social order or does it encourage the struggle against inequalities? The answer reached here underlines the predominance of politicization through the challenging of democratic processes rather than a substantive politicization (where citizens debate the content of issues and discuss values or identities), which hinders the emergence of environmental justice. This study makes two contributions. First, it points out that, beyond conflict, addressing the avenues that conflict takes is vital. Second, while most analyses consider environmental justice within civil society organizations and on the “margins”, this reflection tackles environmental justice within institutions themselves, namely the favoured places of production of social norms. Apprehending the role of institutions in the politicization of environmental issues is, thus, crucial to highlighting some aspects of social framing and the place of environmental issues in society.

“I choose fish”: Understanding informal civil society in Vietnam through environmental grievances and actions

“…The co-dependence between civil society and the state relies on a process of articulating and negotiating what can and cannot be accepted as ‘non-political’. As environmental issues can be framed as either contentious or technocratic (Patsias, 2020), they allow some sensitive elements to be concealed. Bypassing sensitivity leads to neutrality, circumventing the government’s monitoring, and incentivising supporters who would otherwise be discouraged by political risks (Gleiss, 2017).…”

Activism and non-activism: The politics of claiming environmental justice in Vietnam

“…Building on our previous articulation, politicisation is a process of filtering and defining how such issues will be addressed, and which perspectives of the environment and justice flow from them (Patsias, 2020). This process seeks 'to disturb the socio-spatial ordering by re-arranging it with those who stand in for "the people" or the community' (Swyngedouw, 2014: 132).…”

“…Even when the activists in the marine disaster strongly affirmed their actions are not political, the 'successful' mobilisation was largely supported by effective antagonising supporters and unifying them across socio-spatial scales. The Mekong Delta case, meanwhile, affirmed that presence of conflict in the politicisation processes is only as important as the content of this conflict, namely the ways of defining the boundaries at stake (Patsias, 2020). The focus on expertise and diplomacy at the expense of dissensus as the base for politics obscures 'the political' (Swyngedouw, 2015).…”

“…We are interested in environmental justice in specific relation to discourse and framing because the construction of environmental disasters is critical to the corresponding activism. Meanwhile, political ecology was developed out of an attempt to not only understand how cultural identities and values are developed and expressed on and within the environment but also the complex political economy behind such a process (Robbins, 2011a). Political ecology is thus capable of addressing the cultural element of mobilisation, that is, food and nationalism in Vietnam.…”

Fishing for Politics?

“…Overall, this dissertation provides a critical reflection on environmental politicisation in authoritarian contexts. It defines environmental politicisation as a process of filtering and defining how environmental issues will be addressed, and which perspectives of the environment and justice flow from them (Patsias, 2020). It seeks to understand environmental politicisation at the intersection of social movements, spatial planning, and political ecology.…”