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A quantitative systematic review of distributive environmental justice literature: a rich history and the need for an enterprising future

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Abstract

Environmental distributive justice contextually assesses social equities in relation to natural resources. While there is a rich literature on environmental distributive justice, there have been few assessments quantifying the biases and scopes of this literature. We conduct a systematic review of the literature. We find several key biases and summarize the breadth of subjects that have been studied or discussed. We find a very distinct overlap between authorship nationality and study location, which is concerning, as some of the world’s most polluted and inequitable societies are least represented in authorship. Additionally, we find a dominance of quantitative studies. These results are important for understanding both where future research efforts in this area could best be directed, and how the literature could be enriched by diversified approaches. Improving environmental justice studies is critical and important for many people across our global society, which is increasingly shaped by widespread natural resource depletion.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to give particular thanks to Miranda Mariette from the University of Queensland library for her kind and patient help with the design of our search string. Additionally, we would like to kindly thank Dr. Rebecca Colvin from the Australian National University for assistance and advise throughout.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Building 35 University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    Glenn Althor & Bradd Witt

Authors
  1. Glenn Althor
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  2. Bradd Witt
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Contributions

GA undertook the entirety of the study, including conception, design, analysis and manuscript preparation and writing. BW provided guidance for the study design and analysis and provided co-authorship for the manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Glenn Althor.

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Althor, G., Witt, B. A quantitative systematic review of distributive environmental justice literature: a rich history and the need for an enterprising future. J Environ Stud Sci 10, 91–103 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-019-00582-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-019-00582-9

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