New Ways of Looking at Environmental Victimization: A Visual Perspective for Green Criminology

• In Event: Participatory Action Research in Green Criminology

Abstract

The study of green crimes requires new modes of observation of the world, capable of synchronizing with the spatial and the temporal dimensions of the ongoing environmental changes. Drawing on this premise, I will propose an interdisciplinary and visual method to explore the multiple and complex nature of the experiences undergone by those who live in polluted areas – the “environmental victims” – and to describe in detail and from their point of view what they know, think, and feel about the reality in which they find themselves living. In particular, I will discuss how the use of photographic images can help to (1) appreciate and enhance the reflexive and active role of social actors in the symbolic and social construction of their environmental experiences, (2) develop our understanding of how the victims relate to pollution and (3) suggest new forms of reflexive and participatory research in the field of green criminology.

Author

• Lorenzo Natali, University of Milano-Bicocca (Milan, Italy)