On the right side of nature: indigenous spatialities, justice, and the reconfiguration of environmental governance
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines how Indigenous spatialities reconstitute environmental governance systems historically shaped by colonialism. It draws on the Rights of Nature (RoN) concept, focusing on the legal recognition of the Whanganui River under Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Awa Tupua Act . Based on qualitative analysis of legal texts, interviews, news articles, and governance documents, the study identifies three spatial dynamics: unfixing cartographies, drawing decision-making inward, and circulating authority laterally. These dynamics respectively disrupt colonial territorial representations, recentre decision-making processes toward the river, and redistribute authority across relational governance networks. Building on these findings, I argue that Indigenous spatialities enable ontological coexistence within environmental governance, allowing Indigenous and Western understandings of nature to be negotiated within the same governance framework without requiring one to fully subsume the other. The analysis further demonstrates how, through Indigenous spatialities, more-than-human agency emerges as a central mechanism of governance transformation, with important implications for energy justice.
Source: Journal of Business Research
Author: George Ferns
Institution: University of Bath
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,440
OpenAlex ID: W7202381520