Cannibalizing the Northern Environmental Justice Perspective

Pablo Lapegna
(University of Georgia, USA)

Johana Kunin
(Universidad Nacional de San Martín-UNSAM & National Scientific and Technical Research Council-CONICET, Argentina)

Contra todos os importadores de consciência enlatada. (…) Contra o mundo reversível e as idéias objetivadas. Cadaverizadas. O stop do pensamento que é dinâmico. (…) Só não há determinismo — onde há mistério. Mas que temos nós com isso? (…) Mas não foram cruzados que vieram. Foram fugitivos de uma civilização que estamos comendo, porque somos fortes e vingativos como o Jabuti (…) A transfiguração do Tabu em totem. Antropofagia.
 
Against all importers of canned consciousness (...) Against the reversible world and objectified ideas. Cadaverized. The stop of thought that is dynamic (...) There is only no determinism — where there is mystery. But what do we have with that? (...) But it wasn’t crusaders who came. They were fugitives from a civilization that we are eating, because we are strong and vengeful like the Jabuti (...) The transfiguration of the Taboo into a totem. Anthropophagy.
           
--Oswald de Andrade, Manifesto Antropófago (Anthropophagic Manifesto)

What analytical operations are necessary to use environmental justice (EJ) perspectives in Latin America? Broadly understood, EJ may be a form of activism, a set of guidelines for public policy, or a research perspective. These three “branches” are usually intertwined but can be analytically distinguished. Yet they share an interest in addressing the uneven distribution of environmental harms and hazards along racial, ethnic, class, and/or gender inequalities. Our main critique here is towards a perspective that blends EJ as research and as a form of alleged activism through academic writing. In which particular ways do racial formations intersect with social class dynamics and gender inequalities in Latin America, demanding a revamping of the EJ perspective when used in that regional context? And how can we move beyond dichotomous understandings that condemn “polluting actors” or celebrate “resisting communities” and instead advance a more nuanced interpretation of the unequal distribution of environmental goods and harms? We address these questions taking a stance inspired by Brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade and the anthropophagous movement, sidestepping the trap of being “importers of canned consciousness.”