Whose sea? Criticism, Feelings of (In)Justice and Justifications in an Environmental Conflict: Port Developments vs Artisanal Fishing in the South Coast of Espírito Santo, Brazil

Abstract

Disputes around three large development projects in the south coast of Espirito Santo, Brazil, and three communities of artisanal fishermen are the object of research in this article. Based on work in progress, we proposed the concept of environmental conflict to analyze these disputes and its consequences, interpreted as a hybrid category of society and nature, and seeking to strengthen its cosmopolitics charge. From this perspective, it is suggested an analytical framework that considers the criticism as manifestations rooted in the social context and based on feelings of justice/injustice. After analyzing information obtained in field research, it appears that the feelings of justice/injustice that are the basis of social criticism are built from the society/nature relationships, setting up a diversity of conceptions of justice that cannot be reduced to the concept of justice as a common good, or as a sense of justice that encompasses the whole society as a way to resolve conflicts. Instead, the problematic co-presence of the practices allows the suggestion of the notion of cosmojustice to express the irreducible diversity of feelings of justice/injustice.