Analysing an environmental conflict
Seven questions for the group work in Session 6 — and for your poster
Task (20 min, country groups). Open the Environmental Justice Atlas and filter by your country. Pick one conflict — ideally one linked to a major export of your country. No case for your country? Take one linked to its main export commodity (Atlas of Economic Complexity). Work through the seven questions; then report in 2 minutes, starting with question 7.
Why these questions. They follow the conceptual framework of Scheidel et al. (2018) — conflicts over the environment arise from a growing social metabolism (why), are carried by particular actors (through whom), are fought in different valuation languages (how), and unfold in stages of mobilisation (when). The sub-questions follow the template on which every EJAtlas case is coded (Temper et al. 2015), so most answers can be found on the case page.
| Question | Guiding sub-questions | Based on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What and where? | Which project, which commodity, which type of conflict? Where exactly, since when? | Temper et al. (2015) |
| 2 | Why? The metabolic driver | Which flow of materials, energy, water or waste is at stake? Where does the commodity go — who consumes it? Who receives the benefits, who bears the costs? | Scheidel et al. (2018); Martínez-Alier et al. (2010) |
| 3 | Through whom? Actors | Companies (and their home countries), state agencies, financiers; affected and mobilising groups, NGOs. Who has power, money, legal standing? | Scheidel et al. (2018); Temper et al. (2015) |
| 4 | Impacts | Environmental, health and socio-economic impacts. Visible already, or potential? Which groups are hit hardest? | Temper et al. (2015); Scheidel et al. (2023) |
| 5 | How? Valuation languages | In which terms do the parties argue — money, jobs, compensation, or livelihood, territory, sacredness, rights? Are some languages excluded from the decision? | Martínez-Alier (2002); Martínez-Alier et al. (2010) |
| 6 | When? Mobilisation and outcome | Preventive, reacting to the project, or demanding reparation? Forms of protest, litigation, intensity. Repression or violence — direct, but also slow or structural? Outcome? | Scheidel et al. (2020); Navas et al. (2018) |
| 7 | So what? For your poster | What does the case tell you about your country’s position in world trade — and about the twin challenge of social provisioning and ecological sustainability? | Session 5; Dorninger et al. (2021) |
Read the atlas critically. The EJAtlas lists conflicts that were documented, often together with those mobilising (Temper et al. 2015). Coverage differs strongly between countries (Scheidel et al. 2023), and a missing entry does not mean there is no conflict. Treat a case page as a starting point: check it against at least one peer-reviewed case study or another independent source, and note on your poster where your information comes from.
Background. Why the poor often defend the environment — because they live from it — is the argument of the environmentalism of the poor (Anguelovski and Martínez-Alier 2014; Martínez-Alier 2002). A global overview of what mobilisations achieve and at what risk is Scheidel et al. (2020). The worked example in the lecture draws on Flores Fernández and Alba (2023) (open access) and Jerez Henríquez et al. (2021).