Ecojustice and Social Justice

Chet Bowers & Rebecca Martusewicz

Educators interested in ecojustice analyze and fight to end the increasing destruction of the world's diverse ecosystems, languages, and cultures by the globalizing and ethnocentric forces of Western consumer culture. In addition, they also study, support, and teach about the ways that various cultures around the world actively resist these forces by protecting and revitalizing their “commons,” that is, the shared languages, practices, traditions, and relationships (including relationships with the land) necessary to sustain their communities. By emphasizing the commons (and its enclosure or privatization), scholars using ecojustice perspectives recognize social justice as inseparable from and even imbedded in ecological well-being. Ecojustice education thus emphasizes educational reform at the public school, university, and community levels as necessary to stem the tide of both cultural and ecological destruction. The following five priorities are central to ecojustice-based educational reforms: (1) helping to overcome the environmental and political sources of environmental racism; (2) ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.