Breena Holland | Lehigh University (original) (raw)
Papers by Breena Holland
Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 1, 2014
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Jul 3, 2017
The capabilities approach provides a promising basis for developing a theory of interspecies just... more The capabilities approach provides a promising basis for developing a theory of interspecies justice grounded in the inherent dignity of all sentient striving beings. As currently formulated, the approach provides guidance for identifying the entitlements of each being, but not for managing tradeoffs between the capabilities of humans and nonhumans. Through considering cultural practices that put human capabilities in conflict with the capabilities of animals, we propose and defend two criteria for evaluating practices that harm animals for human purposes. The adaptability criterion, derived from Nussbaum's work on capabilities for humans, distinguishes practices that preserve the ability of people to exert ethical agency in a context of changing values and material circumstances. The regulatory criterion, derived from consideration of the interdependence of human and animal capabilities, distinguishes practices that foster the skills and habits people need to create an ecologically just social order. In applying these criteria to cases of human-animal capability conflict, we demonstrate their potential to resolve such conflicts in a way that redresses the effects of colonization and domination, while appreciatingbut not romanticizingthe knowledge and ecological respect of people who once lived in less destructive relationships with other species.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 15, 2020
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Apr 17, 2014
The MIT Press eBooks, Mar 9, 2012
Journal of Human Development, Nov 1, 2008
Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of... more Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of wealth and power to some members of society and not to others. As illustrated here by reference to a 1993 cholera outbreak resulting from degradation of aquatic ecosystems, these ...
Environmental Politics, Feb 22, 2017
Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities t... more Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities that leave some communities especially vulnerable to climate-related environmental harms. By revealing these obstacles and opportunities, theories of procedural justice can help to identify procedural reforms and political strategies that advance the interests of vulnerable populations. An account of procedural justice is proposed that foregrounds the capability for political control over one's environment, defined as having the political power to influence adaptation decisions. While the variables shaping this capability in the politics of environmental injustice often interact in ways that reproduce environmental inequities, adaptation politics has the potential to produce more transformational outcomes. To illustrate this potential, differences between the politics of environmental injustice and the politics of climate adaptation are drawn on to sketch the basic features of a typology of vulnerable populations' political capabilities in the politics of climate adaptation, before highlighting the potential points for intervention.
Political Research Quarterly, Feb 9, 2008
What principles should guide how society distributes environmental benefits and burdens? Like man... more What principles should guide how society distributes environmental benefits and burdens? Like many liberal theories of justice, Martha Nussbaum's "capabilities approach" does not adequately address this question. The author argues that the capabilities approach should be extended to account for the environment's instrumental value to human capa bilities. Given this instrumental value, protecting capabilities requires establishing certain environmental conditions as an independent "meta-capability." When combined with Nussbaum's nonprocedural method of political justifica tion, this extension provides the basis for adjudicating environmental justice claims. The author applies this extended capabilities approach to assess the distribution of benefits and burdens associated with climate change.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Mar 7, 2016
The commitment to human flourishing in various traditions of political thought has been an import... more The commitment to human flourishing in various traditions of political thought has been an important bridge between anthropocentrically conceived political theory and the more encompassing concerns of biocentrism and eco-centrism in environmental political theory. This chapter explores how this commitment has been developed and applied by scholars drawing on the theory of human capabilities—or “capabilities theory”—to imagine and construct an environmentally and ecologically just democratic politics. Treating the natural environment as both a component and condition of human flourishing, some have engaged capabilities theory without challenging anthropocentrism. Others have drawn on and expanded the theory to specify the non-human capabilities of animals, species, and the systems that comprise the natural world. Regarding non-human beings and ecosystems as having a dignity that makes them worthy of recognition as intrinsically valuable ends, these scholars use capabilities theory to include non-human beings and ecosystems as subjects of political justice.
The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, 2022
How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and fut... more How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and future people? The term capabilities refers to conditions or states of enablement that make it possible for people to do things; they are a person’s real opportunities to live a good, or flourishing, human life. In a capabilities approach to intergenerational justice, the relationship between capability thresholds and capability ceilings can provide the basis for setting limits on what people in the present can do to people who will be living in the future. This relationship between capability thresholds and ceilings is applied to consider problems of intergenerational justice raised by a warming global climate. In particular, this chapter addresses how to approach the allocation of emissions reductions needed to prevent dangerous climate change. A capabilities approach sets allowable generational emissions based on what is needed to secure and protect proceeding generations’ capabilities a...
Environmental Justice, 2020
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2021
The papers in this symposium are part of an ongoing dialogue over several years about the capabil... more The papers in this symposium are part of an ongoing dialogue over several years about the capabilities of non-human animals that began at the 2015 HDCA conference at Georgetown University. That conference provided the opportunity for a small group of us to think through how Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to justice could provide the basis for valuing and protecting the capabilities of non-human animals, for responding to the threats posed to differently situated animals, and for identifying the moral sentiments necessary for imagining and supporting the capabilities of non-human animals as obligations of justice. At the 2016HDCA conference in Tokyo, we came together again in a panel on ‘The Capabilities of Different Beings’ that put the conflicts between animal and human capabilities at the centre of our discussion. These papers considered various ways that regard for nonhuman animals within different human cultures can be a resource for or an impediment to the project of i...
Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change, 2012
Capabilities, Gender, Equality
Journal of Human Development, 2008
Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of... more Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of wealth and power to some members of society and not to others. As illustrated here by reference to a 1993 cholera outbreak resulting from degradation of aquatic ecosystems, these ...
Geographical Review, 2002
MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE ... JENNIFER SOKOLOVE, SALLY K. FAI... more MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE ... JENNIFER SOKOLOVE, SALLY K. FAIRFAX, and BREENA HOLLAND ... ABSTRACT. Group identity serves as a mechanism for claiming rights of control and access to land in the United States. ...
Environmental Politics, 2017
Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities t... more Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities that leave some communities especially vulnerable to climate-related environmental harms. By revealing these obstacles and opportunities, theories of procedural justice can help to identify procedural reforms and political strategies that advance the interests of vulnerable populations. An account of procedural justice is proposed that foregrounds the capability for political control over one's environment, defined as having the political power to influence adaptation decisions. While the variables shaping this capability in the politics of environmental injustice often interact in ways that reproduce environmental inequities, adaptation politics has the potential to produce more transformational outcomes. To illustrate this potential, differences between the politics of environmental injustice and the politics of climate adaptation are drawn on to sketch the basic features of a typology of vulnerable populations' political capabilities in the politics of climate adaptation, before highlighting the potential points for intervention.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 2017
We have developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of innovative socio-environmental science ... more We have developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of innovative socio-environmental science investigations (SESI) using a geospatial curriculum approach that has provided economically disadvantaged secondary students with technology-rich, spatial learning experiences to develop science data gathering and analysis skills. SESI are based on the pedagogical frameworks of place-based education and socioscientific issues-based instruction. Place-based education focuses on local or regional investigations, is designed around engaging students in examining local issues [1] and utilizes field-work to gather evidence in that local setting [2]. Place-based education connects learners to their immediate environment and can provide opportunities to empower students to address important socio-scientific issues in their communities. Socio-scientific issues are socially relevant, real-world problems that are informed by science and often include an ethical component [3]. They are sometimes co...
Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 1, 2014
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Jul 3, 2017
The capabilities approach provides a promising basis for developing a theory of interspecies just... more The capabilities approach provides a promising basis for developing a theory of interspecies justice grounded in the inherent dignity of all sentient striving beings. As currently formulated, the approach provides guidance for identifying the entitlements of each being, but not for managing tradeoffs between the capabilities of humans and nonhumans. Through considering cultural practices that put human capabilities in conflict with the capabilities of animals, we propose and defend two criteria for evaluating practices that harm animals for human purposes. The adaptability criterion, derived from Nussbaum's work on capabilities for humans, distinguishes practices that preserve the ability of people to exert ethical agency in a context of changing values and material circumstances. The regulatory criterion, derived from consideration of the interdependence of human and animal capabilities, distinguishes practices that foster the skills and habits people need to create an ecologically just social order. In applying these criteria to cases of human-animal capability conflict, we demonstrate their potential to resolve such conflicts in a way that redresses the effects of colonization and domination, while appreciatingbut not romanticizingthe knowledge and ecological respect of people who once lived in less destructive relationships with other species.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 15, 2020
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Apr 17, 2014
The MIT Press eBooks, Mar 9, 2012
Journal of Human Development, Nov 1, 2008
Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of... more Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of wealth and power to some members of society and not to others. As illustrated here by reference to a 1993 cholera outbreak resulting from degradation of aquatic ecosystems, these ...
Environmental Politics, Feb 22, 2017
Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities t... more Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities that leave some communities especially vulnerable to climate-related environmental harms. By revealing these obstacles and opportunities, theories of procedural justice can help to identify procedural reforms and political strategies that advance the interests of vulnerable populations. An account of procedural justice is proposed that foregrounds the capability for political control over one's environment, defined as having the political power to influence adaptation decisions. While the variables shaping this capability in the politics of environmental injustice often interact in ways that reproduce environmental inequities, adaptation politics has the potential to produce more transformational outcomes. To illustrate this potential, differences between the politics of environmental injustice and the politics of climate adaptation are drawn on to sketch the basic features of a typology of vulnerable populations' political capabilities in the politics of climate adaptation, before highlighting the potential points for intervention.
Political Research Quarterly, Feb 9, 2008
What principles should guide how society distributes environmental benefits and burdens? Like man... more What principles should guide how society distributes environmental benefits and burdens? Like many liberal theories of justice, Martha Nussbaum's "capabilities approach" does not adequately address this question. The author argues that the capabilities approach should be extended to account for the environment's instrumental value to human capa bilities. Given this instrumental value, protecting capabilities requires establishing certain environmental conditions as an independent "meta-capability." When combined with Nussbaum's nonprocedural method of political justifica tion, this extension provides the basis for adjudicating environmental justice claims. The author applies this extended capabilities approach to assess the distribution of benefits and burdens associated with climate change.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Mar 7, 2016
The commitment to human flourishing in various traditions of political thought has been an import... more The commitment to human flourishing in various traditions of political thought has been an important bridge between anthropocentrically conceived political theory and the more encompassing concerns of biocentrism and eco-centrism in environmental political theory. This chapter explores how this commitment has been developed and applied by scholars drawing on the theory of human capabilities—or “capabilities theory”—to imagine and construct an environmentally and ecologically just democratic politics. Treating the natural environment as both a component and condition of human flourishing, some have engaged capabilities theory without challenging anthropocentrism. Others have drawn on and expanded the theory to specify the non-human capabilities of animals, species, and the systems that comprise the natural world. Regarding non-human beings and ecosystems as having a dignity that makes them worthy of recognition as intrinsically valuable ends, these scholars use capabilities theory to include non-human beings and ecosystems as subjects of political justice.
The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, 2022
How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and fut... more How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and future people? The term capabilities refers to conditions or states of enablement that make it possible for people to do things; they are a person’s real opportunities to live a good, or flourishing, human life. In a capabilities approach to intergenerational justice, the relationship between capability thresholds and capability ceilings can provide the basis for setting limits on what people in the present can do to people who will be living in the future. This relationship between capability thresholds and ceilings is applied to consider problems of intergenerational justice raised by a warming global climate. In particular, this chapter addresses how to approach the allocation of emissions reductions needed to prevent dangerous climate change. A capabilities approach sets allowable generational emissions based on what is needed to secure and protect proceeding generations’ capabilities a...
Environmental Justice, 2020
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2021
The papers in this symposium are part of an ongoing dialogue over several years about the capabil... more The papers in this symposium are part of an ongoing dialogue over several years about the capabilities of non-human animals that began at the 2015 HDCA conference at Georgetown University. That conference provided the opportunity for a small group of us to think through how Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to justice could provide the basis for valuing and protecting the capabilities of non-human animals, for responding to the threats posed to differently situated animals, and for identifying the moral sentiments necessary for imagining and supporting the capabilities of non-human animals as obligations of justice. At the 2016HDCA conference in Tokyo, we came together again in a panel on ‘The Capabilities of Different Beings’ that put the conflicts between animal and human capabilities at the centre of our discussion. These papers considered various ways that regard for nonhuman animals within different human cultures can be a resource for or an impediment to the project of i...
Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change, 2012
Capabilities, Gender, Equality
Journal of Human Development, 2008
Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of... more Human impacts on large‐scale ecological interactions effectively confer fundamental advantages of wealth and power to some members of society and not to others. As illustrated here by reference to a 1993 cholera outbreak resulting from degradation of aquatic ecosystems, these ...
Geographical Review, 2002
MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE ... JENNIFER SOKOLOVE, SALLY K. FAI... more MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE ... JENNIFER SOKOLOVE, SALLY K. FAIRFAX, and BREENA HOLLAND ... ABSTRACT. Group identity serves as a mechanism for claiming rights of control and access to land in the United States. ...
Environmental Politics, 2017
Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities t... more Climate adaptation politics presents both obstacles and opportunities for correcting inequities that leave some communities especially vulnerable to climate-related environmental harms. By revealing these obstacles and opportunities, theories of procedural justice can help to identify procedural reforms and political strategies that advance the interests of vulnerable populations. An account of procedural justice is proposed that foregrounds the capability for political control over one's environment, defined as having the political power to influence adaptation decisions. While the variables shaping this capability in the politics of environmental injustice often interact in ways that reproduce environmental inequities, adaptation politics has the potential to produce more transformational outcomes. To illustrate this potential, differences between the politics of environmental injustice and the politics of climate adaptation are drawn on to sketch the basic features of a typology of vulnerable populations' political capabilities in the politics of climate adaptation, before highlighting the potential points for intervention.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 2017
We have developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of innovative socio-environmental science ... more We have developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of innovative socio-environmental science investigations (SESI) using a geospatial curriculum approach that has provided economically disadvantaged secondary students with technology-rich, spatial learning experiences to develop science data gathering and analysis skills. SESI are based on the pedagogical frameworks of place-based education and socioscientific issues-based instruction. Place-based education focuses on local or regional investigations, is designed around engaging students in examining local issues [1] and utilizes field-work to gather evidence in that local setting [2]. Place-based education connects learners to their immediate environment and can provide opportunities to empower students to address important socio-scientific issues in their communities. Socio-scientific issues are socially relevant, real-world problems that are informed by science and often include an ethical component [3]. They are sometimes co...
This is a response to Martha Nussbaum's Plenary Address at the Human Development and Capabilities... more This is a response to Martha Nussbaum's Plenary Address at the Human Development and Capabilities Association Annual Meeting in 2017, which is published next to her plenary lecture in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. I have a number of free reprints of my response, which can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZUHimskkZgkGi4P7dmBq/full
Book Chapter in, The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, Edited by Stephen M. Gardiner, 2022
How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and fut... more How would a capabilities approach to justice conceive of the relationship between present and future people? The term capabilities refers to conditions or states of enablement that make it possible for people to do things; they are a person’s real opportunities to live a good, or flourishing, human life. In a capabilities approach to intergenerational justice, the relationship between capability thresholds and capability ceilings can provide the basis for setting limits on what people in the present can do to people who will be living in the future. This relationship between capability thresholds and ceilings is applied to consider problems of intergenerational justice raised by a warming global climate. In particular, this chapter addresses how to approach the allocation of emissions reductions needed to prevent dangerous climate change. A capabilities approach sets allowable generational emissions based on what is needed to secure and protect proceeding generations’ capabilities at a threshold level. It entails a sufficientarian commitment to ensuring that each generation inherits an atmosphere that enables a minimum threshold of human capabilities. Securing this threshold also entails a limitarian commitment to establishing upper limits on what some people can do in pursuing a flourishing human life because of how this impacts a global atmosphere that is shared across generations.