Advanced Diploma in Global Atlas of Environmental Justice

Class 1: The Atlas of Environmental Justice

Teacher in charge: Joan Martínez Alier

Conceptual summary of the class
Social metabolism. Ecological-distributive conflicts and multidimensional poverty. Environmental justice as a social movement. Global political ecology and its mapping. "Degrowth in practice" in the Global South. The industrial economy is not circular but entropic. We are in the Anthropocene but also in the Enthropocene. There is a huge "metabolic hole" that explains the conflicts at the frontiers of commodity extraction and over waste disposal (including excessive CO2 emissions). The main protagonists of these ecological-distributive conflicts are the poor, indigenous peoples, and the subaltern and oppressed in rural and urban areas.

Class 2: The epistemological and theoretical-methodological approach of the Atlas of Environmental Justice

Teacher in charge: Daniela del Bene

Conceptual summary of the class
In this class, we will review the trajectory and relevance of the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), one of the main projects of the Barcelona Research Group in Environmental Justice Studies and Political Ecology. First, we will trace the origins, scope, and methodology of the EJAtlas as a participatory mapping platform with a global reach, built through the co-production of knowledge between critical academic spaces and collectives fighting for environmental justice. Next, we will see how the work of the EJAtlas reflects and contributes to a broader trend in the field of environmental justice, which seeks to integrate critical mapping and cartographic practices into both research and activism. Finally, we will reflect on some of the tool's uses, such as the creation of Thematic Maps in collaboration with social movements and organizations, and the platform's potential future developments.

Class 3: Extractive companies and corporate social irresponsibility

Teacher in charge: Marcel Keyring Pasquina

Conceptual summary of the class 

Extractive companies are the main antagonists in many environmental conflicts. They are responsible for carrying out the extraction, transportation, processing, and waste disposal operations that characterize the prevailing economic system. In other words, these companies are the primary institutions that materialize extractivism. In particular, transnational corporations mediate the unequal socio-ecological relationships between distant societies. Thanks to the ease of capital and resource movement afforded by trade liberalization and globalization policies, transnational corporations are responsible for the extraction of energy and materials in the Global South and their concentration in the Global North. Through globally integrated and vertically integrated supply chains, transnational corporations bridge the gap between societies that concentrate consumption and the socio-ecologically devastated regions. For this reason, these corporations are the legitimate target of environmental defenders' actions.
In this class, we will explain the nature, systemic function, and behavior of corporations through the study of their involvement in environmental conflicts. We will cover the theoretical foundations, global statistics from the EJAtlas, and case studies of corporations and the conflicts in which they are involved. We will also explore the various strategies used by environmental justice movements to confront corporate activities.

Class 4: Conversations around “Land, Water, Air and Freedom. The Making of World Movements”

Teachers in charge: Gabriela Merlinsky and Arturo Escobar

Conceptual summary of the class

Gabriela Merlinsky and Arturo Escobar will have a conversation about Joan Martínez Alier's latest book.

Class 5: Round table with activists: uses of the Environmental Justice Atlas and strategies of social movements (synchronous) 

Teachers in charge: Lucrecia Wagner and Grettel Navas

Conceptual summary of the class

Environmental defenders involved in various environmental conflicts will be invited. Discussions and reflections will focus on their resistance strategies, key aspects of the conflicts, and their current or potential connections to the Environmental Justice Atlas.

Class 6: Why are there conflicts involving informal recyclers in the metropolises of the Global South? An analysis of 70 cases from the Environmental Justice Atlas

Teachers in charge: Daniele Vico

Conceptual summary of the class

Waste pickers are essential to waste management in the Global South, as they are often the only agents separating recyclable materials from waste, fostering the circularity of urban systems. However, waste pickers increasingly face environmental injustices and marginalization. In this class, we seek to understand why waste pickers are involved in and often mobilized by waste-related conflicts across the Global South. Our hypothesis is that transformations are occurring in waste management in cities of the Global South, driven by changes in both the materiality of urban metabolism (i.e., the generation and composition of waste) and its political economy (i.e., the socioeconomic factors that define waste ownership, access, and management). These reconfigurations lead to the exclusion of waste pickers from access to waste and, consequently, to socio-environmental conflicts. Using the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we have documented and analyzed 70 conflicts in the Global South involving waste pickers. At the crossroads of ecological economics and political ecology, our theoretical framework draws on the concepts of ecological distribution conflicts, social metabolism, and the Marxist theory of capital accumulation. We apply this framework to municipal solid waste. As methods for analyzing conflicts, we implement a qualitative coding process and use it as the basis for a network analysis to identify interrelated co-occurrences between materiality, economics, and the outcomes of socio-environmental conflict. The results show an increase in the amount of waste in cities of the Global South, which is addressed through neoliberal strategies such as the privatization of waste management and the introduction of new technologies, such as incineration.

Class 7: Metal mining in Latin America and other continents

Teachers in charge: Lucrecia Wagner and Mariana Walter

Conceptual summary of the class

Mining is one of the activities that generates the most environmental conflicts worldwide, according to the EJAtlas. In recent decades, technological advances, the use of different minerals for new industrial processes, and the expansion of mining operations into other territories have increased environmental conflicts surrounding this activity.
In this class, we propose to delve into these mining conflicts, primarily related to metal mining, by characterizing the activity, its dynamics in recent decades, and the reasons why various communities organized to resist the installation of mining projects. We will identify the different actors involved in the conflicts, their strategies, the impacts generated and perceived, and the outcomes of this conflict. We will reflect on the implications of a Latin American environmental history marked by colonialism, and the place of mining and extractivism in the memories and resistance of these communities.
In recent years, the debate on mining extraction has become intertwined with another major debate: the energy transition. The need for minerals for this transition—for example, lithium for batteries, or copper, aluminum, and cadmium, among others, for solar panels—generates new demands and extractive pressures. We will delve into these challenges through specific examples of collaboration between EJATLAS and other organizations to generate collective mapping and reports alongside the movements resisting from within their territories.
Finally, we will analyze the transformations that have arisen from this environmental conflict. What processes have been generated in the communities affected by these conflicts, and what kind of transformations do they entail? How can we study these processes, and why is it important to do so? These are some of the questions we will seek to answer throughout the class.

Class 8: Activism Mobilizing Science

Teacher in charge: Marta Conde

Conceptual summary of the class

In environmental conflicts, corporations or government agencies use scientific and technical language and knowledge to justify extractive projects, forcing communities and groups in struggle to generate alternative knowledge. Often, this knowledge is generated through alliances between scientists and activists in a process called Activism Mobilizing Science (AMS). In this class, we will explore environmental conflicts in Namibia, Niger, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico, which we will find in the assigned readings, to discover the purpose of these alliances, the types of knowledge employed, the relevance of co-producing knowledge, and the power dynamics between scientists and activists. We will also reflect on the potential consequences for communities and committed scientists, and what strategies can be used to mitigate negative repercussions.

Class 9: Socio-environmental justice in infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon: consultation, social participation and case studies

Teacher in charge: Karla Sessin-Dilascio

Conceptual summary of the class

Infrastructure projects can be conceived in a broad way, referring to both engineering works (eg hydroelectric plants, roads, railways), and territorial occupation and governance structures that alter the infrastructure of social relations (eg REDD+, protection areas, etc.). In Brazil, alterations not only in the dynamics of territorial occupation can generate impacts of various natures. Especially in the Brazilian Amazon, whose territory is occupied by traditional and indigenous populations that trace back centuries of history. A (socio)environmental justice emerges as a fundamental practice and concept to guarantee equity and distribution of benefits in infrastructure projects through the struggle and attitude of organized civil society, community-based movements, indigenous peoples in relation to monocratic decisions, from top to bottom, that geram impacts on forest territories. Starting from this understanding, this class relies on a comparative study between emblematic cases of Brazilian infrastructure (eg hydroelectric plants - Belo Monte and Teles Pires; roads – Transoceânica, Transamazônia; hydrocarbon exploration – Coari-Manaus and Carauari; new “green” infrastructures – REDD+) to highlight concepts and tools developed by Brazilian activists and researchers that have become important (eg prior consultation; licensing process; independent monitoring, social participation and governance, advocacy tools) to guarantee socio-environmental justice in infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon. A small history of occupation of the Amazon will be presented, the Brazilian concept of “socioenvironmentalism” will be discussed, as will the concept of “environmentalism of the poor” in the Brazilian reality, based on the analysis of different case studies of infrastructure in Brazil. 

Class 10: Conflicts, public health and the environment

Teacher in charge: Grettel Navas

Conceptual summary of the class

Along with biodiversity loss and global warming, toxic pollution is one of the major challenges we face today. From an environmental justice and political ecology perspective, this class will provide a comprehensive overview of environmental conflicts and their intersection with toxic pollution and its impacts on public and environmental health.

Initially, we will study the social and political implications of living in a “toxic world.” Then, we will analyze who the communities fighting against different types of toxic pollution around the world are and how they mobilize. For example: 1) the struggle of communities mobilized against pollution caused by the production, use, and disposal of pesticides; 2) communities organizing to demand justice and reparations for the health damage caused by asbestos contamination in Europe and Latin America; 3) communities affected by heavy metal pollution related to metal mining in Central America and Africa; and 4) communities organized against air pollution in different urban areas. At a conceptual level, we will critically study and analyze the concept of “sacrifice zones” and how it has been used by different epistemic communities to describe spaces saturated with pollution and characterize the sick bodies that inhabit them: Who are expendable and why?

At a theoretical level, the concepts of "slow violence" and "intergenerational environmental justice" will also be explored, given the persistence of toxic pollution beyond time and space. This class aims to foster reflection on the different types of persistent pollution and to open a debate and characterization of the specific features of "environmental health conflicts" compared to other environmental conflicts.

Class 11: Extractivism in India: conflicts surrounding sand and gravel mining, coal and metal mining

Teacher in charge: Arpita Bisht

Conceptual summary of the class

This class presents several important cases of social resistance movements against extractivism in India. It will address the organizational structures of these movements, their tools, and how they exert influence at the national and international levels in pressuring against extractive projects. Cases of ecological injustice surrounding extractive projects in India primarily involve indigenous communities (Adivasi) and their struggles to defend "jal, jangal, zameen" (water, forests, land), a key slogan of the collective movement defending ecosystems. However, there are many other movements among local communities of farmers and fishers in rural areas, as well as movements against sand mining, comprised of a broader range of actors, including peri-urban groups.
Three important cases of large-scale, long-term resistance movements in India will be introduced. First, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (movement to save the Narmada River), led by indigenous and non-indigenous communities in Gujarat and Maharashtra, in western India. Although it ultimately failed to halt the dam's construction, this movement has had enormous repercussions for policymaking both in India and globally, including World Bank policies on dams. Second, the Niyamgiri Bachao Andolan (movement to save the Niyamgiri Mountains), led by the local Dongria Kond indigenous community of Odisha, in eastern India. This 13-year resistance movement succeeded in preventing bauxite mining on Niyamgiri, a sacred mountain for the Dongria Kond people. Third, resistances against sand mining by local peri-urban communities across India. This presents an overview of the anti-mining movements against sand, a geographically widespread and dispersed resource. 

Class 12: Coal conflicts in China and Chinese investments in the BRI countries

Teacher in charge: Bowen Gu

Conceptual summary of the class

China burns half of the world's coal. In 2023, coal still accounted for more than 50 percent of China's total primary energy use. China's reliance on coal poses significant and lasting challenges to the prospects for global climate goals, as well as for local communities. This class will discuss environmental justice from the perspective of China's coal-based economy, drawing on conflict cases from the EJAtlas. These range from artistic activism supporting local communities affected by coal mining to legal approaches such as public interest litigation (PIL) brought by environmental NGOs.

Furthermore, Chinese investment and its associated socio-environmental footprint have extended far beyond its borders. The establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 accelerated the “export” of Chinese developmentalism to Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and beyond. This has led to studies on “global China” that increasingly examine Chinese overseas investment at both local and global scales. In this conference, we focus on Indonesia to explore how local movements perceive, challenge, and influence Chinese investments in energy infrastructure within the BRI. This also connects with grassroots studies and movements in Latin America, where Chinese investments are present and continue to be challenged from the bottom up.

Class 13: Energy in North Africa. Forms of extractivism

Teacher in charge: Roberto Cantoni

Conceptual summary of the class

In this course, we will examine, through two literary currents (critical geography and energy justice), how issues of energy exploitation, and extractivism in general, intersect with postcolonial and neocolonial perspectives. Narratives based on the necessity and urgency of the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies (or at least to other fossil fuels that emit fewer greenhouse gases) are often used to overcome legal and social obstacles related to specific territorial or demographic conditions, leading to the exacerbation of pre-existing conflicts or the creation of new ones.

By examining the conflicts caused by energy expansion strategies from Egypt to Western Sahara, we will see how activist communities have launched various forms of mobilization and how national governments have attempted to suppress dissent within their borders, while trying to present themselves to foreign observers as countries at the forefront of environmental respect, pluralism, and public consultation.

Class 14: Dialogues on Environmental Justice with Environmental Defenders

Teacher in charge: Gabriela Merlinsky

Conceptual summary of the class

This is a conversation and discussion panel in which environmental defenders from different regions of the world will participate, and whose experiences have been incorporated into the Environmental Justice Atlas.
The dialogue will be organized in three rounds around the following questions:
If, as we know, the personal is political, how do they experience, feel, think, and embody the unfolding of feminisms in Latin America in their activist/situated/militant practice?
Is it possible to envision an intersection between feminisms, anti-extractivist struggles, and environmental justice movements? How? What reflections does recent experience offer, particularly regarding its implications for critiquing extractive regimes in their various forms? What are the specific characteristics of these experiences in your countries?
In this third round, I would ask for a more general reflection on violence against women and sexual minorities. How do these different forms of violence intertwine and affect us? How do we mount a challenge to resist what Rosa Cobos calls the counteroffensive of the new barbarians of patriarchy—that is, the persecution of bodies that fight, that resist, that are visible in the public sphere? How do we account for and respond to these processes?

Class 15: The Environmental Justice Movement

Teacher in charge: Joan Martínez Alier

Conceptual summary of the class

The first, highly empirical part analyzes some twenty conflicts around the world where the protagonists sometimes succeed in keeping fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) underground. This chapter is inspired by the struggles in Ecuador and Nigeria since the 1990s: "leave oil in the soil, leave coal in the hole." In this class, we will continue with Chapter 16 of the book "Land, Water, Air, and Freedom," calculating the tons of CO2 emissions avoided through these movements. The second part of this class will cover the final chapter of "Land, Water, Air, and Freedom," entitled "The Environmentalism of the Poor and Indigenous Peoples in Contemporary History," with the following sections: Ecological economics, political ecology, and industrial ecology: three complementary fields. The repertoires of protest in popular environmentalism. Iconography and vocabulary of environmental justice. Languages ​​of valuation. Eco-Marxism and the second contradiction of capitalism.

To participate, it is essential that you register using the online form.

Upon completion of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation in your email.

Classes will begin in August and will conclude in November 2024.

All registered participants will receive the necessary instructions to access the classes, bibliography and discussion forums through the CLACSO Virtual Training Space.

Accessing and navigating the Virtual Learning Environment is very simple and user-friendly. In any case, a technical and academic support team will always be available to you.

Exceptional criteria: In exceptional cases, and within the first month of the start of the Advanced Diploma program, students may request to withdraw from the cohort and rejoin the following year. In all cases, the reasons for the request must be submitted in writing. After that period of time has elapsed since the start of the course, no requests will be accepted.

Money paid will only be refunded in cases where the organizing institutions decide to cancel the activity. 

Payment can be made in one installment by credit card, bank deposit, or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.

Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.