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Free keywords:
Geography
Left-behind places
Environmental inequality
Labour markets
Just transitions
Human Well-Being and Development
Inequality
Abstract:
This analysis aims at conceptualising the environmental dimension of left-behind places. I argue that implementing environmental inequality concepts into economic geography is pivotal to sharpen the analysis of just transition geographies. Adopting such lens (1) helps to grasp the theoretical underpinnings of environmental inequalities, (2) lays bare the stratification of environmental risks in left-behind places, (3) helps overcome the environment-vs-jobs narrative. Overall, I lay out how environmental inequality exacerbates economic deprivation, together producing and reproducing left-behind places. Taken together, economic geography studies would profit from putting environmental inequality at its core. This conceptualisation has important policy implications around labour-focused just transitions.
