Applying the Five Faces of Oppression to Climate Justice: Analysing discussions of climate justice with the help of Iris Marion Young’s theory of oppression

Abstract

This research aims to fill the academic gap between Iris Marion Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression” and climate justice literature. As Young’s theory has not been applied to this academic field yet, this research is a first attempt of bridging her notions of oppression and injustice with climate justice. This research accordingly relies on a conceptual analysis, in order to demonstrate the conceptual overlap between the two matters and to understand climate injustice from Young’s theoretical framework’s point of view. Additionally, this research also relies on a non-ideal approach towards understanding climate justice and a normative analysis by providing recommendations towards climate justice that are based on Young’s theoretical toolbox.The conceptual analysis shows that all Five Faces are applicable and relevant to climate justice, especially since they provide new insights regarding the nature of injustices in the context of the causes and consequences of climate change, while the implicit and/or explicit recommendations that follow from Young’s Five Faces are generally in accordance with climate justice literature. Consequently, Young’s notions of oppression and injustice provide a toolbox to climate justice scholars that could help to identify climate injustices in new ways. A particular focus throughout this research is the notion of intersectionality, in order to demonstrate how multiple factors of oppression are at play that can make one worse off than another in relation to climate change. Since this is a recurring theme in Young’s Five Faces, this theory’s conceptual overlap with climate justice also provides new and meaningful tools for analysing climate justice’s intersectional nature.