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Green Activist Criminology and the Epistemologies of the South

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Abstract

Since its inception, green criminology has attempted to highlight instances of environmental degradation and destruction, as well as examine and analyse the causes thereof and contemplate the responses thereto. Efforts to reduce environmental crime and curb environmental harm, more generally, have not gone unimpeded, however. Activists around the world are being killed in record numbers trying to defend their land and protect the environment. In this article, I consider the role of socially engaged scholars who reject the idea or ideology of ‘neutral scientists’ in light of the risks faced by environmental defenders. As such, this article replies to the claims that activism and the production of knowledge must be clearly separated. To do so, this article draws upon examples from Latin America to underscore the importance of an ‘activist criminology’ (Belknap in Criminology 53(1):1–22. doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12063, 2015) attuned to environmental harms and injustices perpetrated on those seeking to prevent the despoliation of the Earth.

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Notes

  1. The victims of disputes over land access are not included in the figure. For a more thorough account of this issue, see Goyes in Brisman et al. (2015).

  2. Those seeking “eco-justice” include those who adhere to the principles of environmental justice, ecological justice or species justice (see White 2013b).

  3. Document published on Facebook by the paramilitary group ‘Aguilas Negras’ (Black eagles) on March 11, 2015.

  4. Bourdieu is of special interest here given that he addressed key ideas, such as autonomy, politics in the scientific field, and objectivity. As such, Bourdieu’s orientation serves as a reference point for some of the discussion in this article.

  5. It is necessary to recognize that some methods, such as the triangulation of different sources, enhance the reliability of knowledge claims. Likewise, with software, codes and themes, solely subjective interpretation of data is more likely avoided. The point of the critique, however, is that it is impossible to completely exclude subjective components form knowledge. Even when codes are used when analyzing date, those codes were brought about by a researcher who used her/his lifetime experiences to create them. I am grateful to Kerry Carrington for helping me flesh out this point.

  6. The concepts of ‘responsibility’ and ‘credibility’ are often also associated with this debate but given that the examination of them has been placed in a wider set of political and social relations, I will undertake them in the section entitled “The importance of an ‘activist criminology’ attuned to harms and injustices.”

  7. Hereafter, I use the terms ‘North’ and ‘South’ when using the ideas of the epistemologies of the North and the South, and thus when referring to cultural and political orientations. Conversely, I use ‘global North’ or ‘global South’ when making reference to Southern Theories, and consequently talking about geographical locations.

  8. Some raised in/by the North can be allies to the South; however, it is not completely clear if they (including me) are indeed part of the South, as even when sympathizing and trying to help the South, our knowledge is not created in the same urgent and pragmatic condition as in the South. I would like to refer to them as the ‘earthlings’—those who are neither Northern nor Southern—because they were able to eliminate the abyss and even when not producing knowledge in an urgent and necessary way, are able to recognize the multiplicity of valid knowledges existing in the world.

  9. The reference to ‘a variety of methods’ may seem too broad in formulation. Spatial restrictions render it impossible to offer more than an example. The idea of a variety of methods applies not only to the collection of material/experience, but also to the ways of analyzing it and transmitting it. In the case of knowledge transmission, an excellent example is the use of myths and tales to pass along knowledge through verbal means—something that has been seen often as mere superstitions and folklore.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Avi Brisman, Kerry Carrington, Rune Ellefsen, Ragnhild Sollund and Nigel South for their valuable comments on earlier drafts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, P.O. 6707 St. Olavs Plass, 0130, Oslo, Norway

    David Rodríguez Goyes

  2. Antonio Nariño University, Calle 58 A No. 37–94, Bogotá, 111321, Colombia

    David Rodríguez Goyes

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Correspondence to David Rodríguez Goyes.

Additional information

Apartheid in Modernity.

I love my work as academic. And I am happy if I receive respect for my work, as a craftsman. I think this work is important. But academics are at the same time dangerous people. Particularly, there is no guarantee that people of our sort are the best to protect fundamental values. Our more recent history has an endless amount of examples on what experts have been allowed to do according to theories on what is best for other people, or for their countries.

Nils Christie, 2013.

The Nobodies.

Those who are not, but could be.

Who don’t speak languages, but dialects.

Who don’t have religions, but superstitions.

Who don’t create art, but handicrafts.

Who don’t have culture, but folklore.

Who are not human beings, but human resources.

Eduardo Galeano ‘Los nadies’, 1940.

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Goyes, D.R. Green Activist Criminology and the Epistemologies of the South. Crit Crim 24, 503–518 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-016-9330-y

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