Multi-species justice: a view from the rights of nature movement

Abstract

The multi-species turn is generating significant new opportunities for rethinking theories of justice. However, these efforts to think beyond anthropocentric approaches to justice often sit uneasily alongside the concerns of more human-centered social justice movements. Closely engaging a recent paper that outlines a research agenda for this emerging field, I argue that to take seriously the question of how to build counter-hegemonic coalitions that might ultimately be capable of translating these approaches into durable institutional forms, it is important to more fully engage Indigenous and critical race scholarship while at the same time more carefully attending to the tensions and frictions between them. Both raise questions about the ontological and political priorities of multi-species activists that deserve significantly further engagement. I advance this argument by means of short illustrative snapshots of recent debates within movements for the rights of nature in Australia and the United States.