Rethinking environmental justice from the post-socialist city context: The case of informal green areas

Abstract

Environmental justice theory has largely been developed in Western contexts, resulting in blind spots when applying it to the unfinished planning project of socialist modernity, which left behind vast informal green areas now subjected to neoliberal urbanization processes. Combining sociological fieldwork with a critical evaluation of the literature on environmental justice, the paper focuses on informal green areas in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn. While former studies convey a rather positive picture of green space provision and access in post-socialist cities, the common focus on distributive justice conceals inequalities and challenges to the inclusive creation of a fair city “on the ground.” By rethinking environmental justice approaches in urban, green space research in the post-socialist context, we explore the experiences and perspectives of vulnerable groups who are less mobile and more dependent on nearby green areas, specifically the informal green area of Kurepõllu in the Lasnamäe district. One result of the study has been to uncover the complexities of evaluating the quality of informal green areas in terms of environmental justice. In Kurepõllu, the often discussed issue of neglect is locally seen as an enabler of informal practices that create(d) a place for humans to care, produce, meet or enjoy solitude, whereas attempts to develop these green areas, which could solve maintenance issues, generated concern about losing such benefits. We thus urge the careful recognition and inclusion of local needs and experiences to mitigate problems in the field of environmental justice in a way that is meaningful to vulnerable groups and species.