The Environment on our Doorsteps: Community Restorative Justice and the Roots of Sustainability

Community Restorative Justice;Northern Ireland;Natural Resources and Environment

McCabe, KatherinePerfecto, Ivette ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Community Restorative Justice;    Northern Ireland;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/64292/McCabeThesis2009.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

The leading paradigms of sustainability are fraught with tremendousshortcomings and ambiguities in relation to both peace and justice, and lack anysignificant discourse on the necessity of radically transforming our political institutions toincorporate sustainability issues into the development agenda. In an effort to addressthese shortcomings, a new paradigm called just sustainability has emerged. Justsustainability is an approach that recognizes the inseparable nature of social andenvironmental justice and sustainability, and pushes for organizations and governmentalinstitutions to become more aware of the relationships that exist between inequality,injustice and environmentally unsustainable practices (Agyeman 2005). This studyprovides a critical assessment of Community Restorative Justice (CRJ), a grassroots,community-based initiative in the north of Ireland dedicated to creating change throughan empowering, participatory process to build a just community that is tolerant,responsive, and inclusive.Restorative justice is a response to crime and anti-social behavior that is ;;aimed atrepairing the harm caused by a criminal act and restoring the balance in the communityaffected by the criminal act” (Government of British Columbia 2006); central to manyrestorative justice programs—CRJ included—is the idea that crimes are committedagainst individuals or communities as opposed to the state. Since its creation in 1996,CRJ has come to play an integral role in the continuing Irish peace process, as it providesalternatives to punishment violence through its conflict mediation and education servicesand stresses above all else that those most affected should have the opportunity toparticipate in the regenerative process.Until recently, few scholars have thought to emphasize the roles that peace andjustice can play as strategies in a sustainable development framework, let alone thecontributions that an organization such as CRJ can make to both the environmentaljustice movement and broader struggles for social and economic equality. This paperseeks to demonstrate how the work of CRJ and its place within the greater West Belfastcommunity contribute to a more solid foundation for just sustainable developmentthrough efforts toward local decision-making, participation and empowerment, and thereclamation of community/sovereignty; the reconfiguration of relationships withincommunities and between different levels of government; and the connections betweenviolence, inequality, quality of life, and community development.The assessment of CRJ and its place within the context of just sustainability willprovide an alternative conceptualization of the connection between issues of humansecurity, development, and environmental justice. The analysis of this integratedapproach can be applied to both the current sustainability discourse, as well as currentgrassroots activist efforts to create more creative, proactive, and effective strategies thatare holistic in nature and recognize the critical links between economic opportunity,social welfare, and quality of life.