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Towards a Broader Conceptualisation of Environmental Justice in South Africa

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The Geography of South Africa

Part of the book series: World Regional Geography Book Series ((WRGBS))

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Abstract

In contemporary South Africa, environmental justice is a critical question for geographers. It is argued in this chapter that whilst new civil society leadership has emerged to address environmental justice concerns in the post-apartheid period, these have not been effective in formulating an emerging ‘environmental justice framework’ by way of a coherent ideology to collectively address social and environmental risks for more effective civil society actions against macroeconomic risks. This chapter explores selected case studies to examine how leadership in social and environmental struggles has unfolded, and for joint actions. Results indicate that leadership for an emerging environmental justice framework is restricted by individualised and self-interested leaderships, undermining engagement for collective actions both within and across the social and environmental arenas. It is observed that leadership will be vital in advancing local struggles, and also ensuring expansion and connection of struggles beyond localities, but will require negotiation between leaderships on convergence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Llewellyn Leonard

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  1. Llewellyn Leonard
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Correspondence to Llewellyn Leonard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Archaeology & Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Jasper Knight

  2. School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Christian M. Rogerson

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Leonard, L. (2019). Towards a Broader Conceptualisation of Environmental Justice in South Africa. In: Knight, J., Rogerson, C. (eds) The Geography of South Africa . World Regional Geography Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94974-1_30

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