Engaged Research reveals the Grey Areas in Climate Justice

Abstract

As instances of green grabbing increase, the subtle and indirect connections between climate change politics and the disenfranchisement of local resource users are ever more relevant for appropriate political interventions. It is common to privilege formally constituted climate change policies, like REDD+ or reforestation projects, but the politics of climate change go far beyond that, often disrupting and displacing people in ways that exceed actual climate change effects. Getting at the textured, intimate, and sometimes invisible processes that make up the grey areas in green grabbing needs a deeply embedded perspective, and social justice emerges from the everyday experiences of situated advocates and locally affected researchers. This paper will explore how the interface between local resource users, justice advocates, and academic researchers was integral to illuminating the less obvious and sometimes intentionally hidden processes that divest users from resources in the context of climate-informed development. Foregrounding voices from the ground, the intention here is to learn from experiences thus far and find ways to expand collaborations toward effective and meaningful interventions in climate justice.