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| Title: | The Environment on our Doorsteps: Community Restorative Justice and the Roots of Sustainability |
| Authors: | McCabe, Katherine |
| Keywords: | Community Restorative Justice
Northern Ireland |
| Issue Date: | Dec-2009 |
| Abstract: | The leading paradigms of sustainability are fraught with tremendous
shortcomings and ambiguities in relation to both peace and justice, and lack any
significant discourse on the necessity of radically transforming our political institutions to
incorporate sustainability issues into the development agenda. In an effort to address
these shortcomings, a new paradigm called just sustainability has emerged. Just
sustainability is an approach that recognizes the inseparable nature of social and
environmental justice and sustainability, and pushes for organizations and governmental
institutions to become more aware of the relationships that exist between inequality,
injustice and environmentally unsustainable practices (Agyeman 2005). This study
provides a critical assessment of Community Restorative Justice (CRJ), a grassroots,
community-based initiative in the north of Ireland dedicated to creating change through
an 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 at
repairing the harm caused by a criminal act and restoring the balance in the community
affected by the criminal act” (Government of British Columbia 2006); central to many
restorative justice programs—CRJ included—is the idea that crimes are committed
against 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 provides
alternatives to punishment violence through its conflict mediation and education services
and stresses above all else that those most affected should have the opportunity to
participate in the regenerative process.
Until recently, few scholars have thought to emphasize the roles that peace and
justice can play as strategies in a sustainable development framework, let alone the
contributions that an organization such as CRJ can make to both the environmental
justice movement and broader struggles for social and economic equality. This paper
seeks to demonstrate how the work of CRJ and its place within the greater West Belfast
community contribute to a more solid foundation for just sustainable development
through efforts toward local decision-making, participation and empowerment, and the
reclamation of community/sovereignty; the reconfiguration of relationships within
communities and between different levels of government; and the connections between
violence, inequality, quality of life, and community development.
The assessment of CRJ and its place within the context of just sustainability will
provide an alternative conceptualization of the connection between issues of human
security, development, and environmental justice. The analysis of this integrated
approach can be applied to both the current sustainability discourse, as well as current
grassroots activist efforts to create more creative, proactive, and effective strategies that
are holistic in nature and recognize the critical links between economic opportunity,
social welfare, and quality of life. |
| Appears in Collections: | Dissertations and Theses (Ph.D. and Master's)
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| McCabeThesis2009.pdf | McCabe thesis | 6261Kb | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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