Exploring the Intersection of Environmental Degradation and Poverty: Environmental Injustice in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Environmental justice explores the nexus between structural inequalities and environmental degradation. Although scholarship on environmental justice is vast, this literature is centred in developed countries, rather than exploring the injustices occurring in international contexts. This study aims to address this gap through a combined phenomenological and ethnographic approach in Jam City, a poor community in Nairobi, Kenya. Findings that are discussed include the similarities of environmental injustices between Jam City and the established literature as well as several nuances with the literature, including how lack of resources for response perpetuates injustice and how environmental hazards may not be explicitly dangerous but can still cause disparate harms. This study supports the argument that social workers should be more involved in promoting environmental justice by increasing our focus on the topic in our curriculum, research and practice.

Keywords::

• Qualitative Methods
• Africa
• Community work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.