Addressing Epistemic Injustice: Engaging Children as Environmental Communicators to Support the Long-Term Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems

Marie McEntee (), Kat Thomas, Molly Mullen, Christina Houghton, Mark Harvey and Ariane Craig-Smith
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Marie McEntee: School of Environment, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland|Waipapa Taumata Rau, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Kat Thomas: School of Critical Studies in Education, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland|Waipapa Taumata Rau, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Molly Mullen: School of Critical Studies in Education, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland|Waipapa Taumata Rau, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Christina Houghton: School of Environment, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland|Waipapa Taumata Rau, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Mark Harvey: Dance Studies Programme, Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, University of Auckland|Waipapa Taumata Rau, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Ariane Craig-Smith: Independent Art Curator, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Closure of a forest for biosecurity purposes led to the marginalisation and disconnection of Year 6 children from a local forest of significance to them in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The marginalisation of children’s voices and concomitantly of their knowledge, ideas, and values from environmental issues can be viewed as an example of epistemic injustice, which manifests widely in the environmental area, particularly in relation to marginalised groups. To counter this marginalisation and promote epistemic justice, we explored how the creative arts involving a child-driven environmental communication project could foster children’s sense of agency by supporting the protection of a local forest affected by a tree disease. We show that the creative arts could facilitate the children’s meaningful engagement in environmental issues in a learning environment that fostered child-centric approaches that enabled children to express their visions for sustainable futures in distinctly unique ways that were relevant to them. Furthermore, enabling the children to participate as environmental communicators re-established their relationship with their local forest and re-balanced the power structures that had led to the children’s sense of marginalisation. The insights on how this child-centred relational approach can promote epistemic justice and provide a meaningful contribution to the long-term sustainable management of forest ecosystems has implications for other marginalised groups.

Keywords: epistemic injustice; environmental communication; environmental management; biosecurity; power structures; participatory research; transdisciplinary research; mātauranga Māori; art-based practices; behaviour change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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