Capturing Common Ground: Exploring Notions of Environmental and Ecological Justice Among Protestors Opposed to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project

This research project focuses on individuals engaged in protest and direct action against the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX), an interprovincial oil pipeline project that starts in Alberta and ends in the Burrard Inlet of the Salish Sea, British Columbia. It explores how religious and nonreligious activists conceptualize nature-related harms of the TMX project, and to what extent these conceptualizations reflect notions of ecological justice. Ecological justice holds that nonhuman entities have the inherent right to flourish and be legally protected from human harm. Accordingly, it offers a way to restructure human-nature relations that is becoming increasingly common across the globe as a response to climate change. This project will offer new perspectives grounded in social scientific research on how Canada can respond to the climate crisis. Empirical data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with activists. This project has been approved by the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board.

Faculty Supervisor:

Lori Beaman

Student:

Partner:

Uppsala Universitet

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: