Defining Justice
The theory of disaster justice draws its premises from studies of social vulnerability, justice theory, disaster law, and the environmental justice movement.
Given the wide array of backgrounds of this group, justice will mean something different for everyone. For example, an emergency management perspective may define disaster justice as the elimination of the conditions that create risk and, in the failure to do so, to conduct preparedness, response, and recovery efforts in an effective, efficient, and equitable manner. Whereas a historical perspective may see disaster justice achieved through the documentation of and reckoning with the accumulated injuries of disasters over time.
Disaster justice is the pursuit of greater fairness and a moral claim on governance when law and government fail to provide to vulnerable people the protection and benefits they need to lead a safe and productive life. The concept has its foundation in the idea that the creation of government, and its quintessential role is its responsibility to protect its citizens to an acceptable minimal level when their resources are overwhelmed. We draw inspiration from scholars (among many) including Greg Bankoff, Robert Bullard, Mike Douglass, Michelle Ann Miller, Rob Nixon, Robert Verchick, William Waugh, Beverly Wright, and many, many others.
This group is inclusive of the many ways disaster is defined. Power can be challenged in many ways. Yet, we strive towards a common strategy to restore human dignity by elucidating, actively challenging, and abolishing any form of prejudice or harm. We seek to coalesce around core precepts of disaster justice while aligning with multiple dimensions of more nuanced definitions.
