Envisioning healthy futures: Youth perceptions of justice-oriented environments and communities in Northern British Columbia Canada

Through an anti-colonial and critical race theoretical framework as well as arts-based methods (photovoice) that engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, we explore the question: what do youth perceive as healthy and just environments and communities? Youth identified two overarching, strength-ba...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health & place 2022-07, Vol.76, p.102817, Article 102817
Main Authors: Sloan Morgan, Onyx Vanessa, Thomas, Kimberley, McNab-Coombs, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
British Columbia
Canada
Climate justice
Environmental Health
Humans
Photovoice
Social Justice
Youth
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Summary:Through an anti-colonial and critical race theoretical framework as well as arts-based methods (photovoice) that engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, we explore the question: what do youth perceive as healthy and just environments and communities? Youth identified two overarching, strength-based messages: Firstly, youth demonstrate the need for a structural-level analysis of the conditions that influence individual-level outcomes of environmental health. Secondly, youth perspectives on healthy and justice-oriented environments and communities challenge environmental health scholars to consider youth as powerful actors. Youth perspectives of healthy and justice-oriented communities present a necessarily structural perspective to consider not only the impacts of environmental decision-making on health, but the conditions that have allowed for harmful impacts. In doing so, youth demonstrate the need for intersectional and complex understandings of health and wellbeing when discussing the environment. And, as we argue here, challenge us as scholars of environmental health to do the same. •Environmental and youth health literature often ignore structural conditions that cause environmental toxins.•Environmental health interventions target individuals versus collective or transformative change.•Youth who experience structural barriers are often omitted as actors for healthy and justice-oriented communities.•Youth in northern British Columbia Canada perceive healthy environments as integral to a healthy community.
ISSN:1353-8292
1873-2054
DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102817