Environmental violence

Elaborating on the literature on environmental violence produced by various disciplines, this chapter gives an overview of the multiple facets of the concept. Recalling Galtung's threefold categorization of violence, this chapter pays particular attention to non-direct and structural forms of violence against ecosystems, such as slow and infrastructural violence. They are investigated in their relationship with social inequalities, spatial injustice, environmental racism and legal procrastination. By recognising the importance of the interplay between territorial specificities and conceptual development, the chapter draws on real examples around the world, thus showing the complexity of the observed phenomena. As these cases show, environmental violence is contrasted by a vast repertoire of forms of resistance, from grassroots local initiatives to legal innovations at the international level. Eventually, the chapter calls for a reflection on the role of social science in contrasting environmental violence and in producing critical theory against new technocratic and exploitative forms of control of nature.