Environmental justice and residential segregation in Czechia :the case of Roma resettlement in the town of Vsetín

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss environmental injustice in relation to residential segregation in Czechia. First, we pay attention to the concepts of environmental justice, social justice and residential segregation and their mutual relations. The core of our argument revolves around the case study of a segregated Roma community that was resettled by the municipal authority from an old dilapidated inner city block of flats to newly built housing on the industrial edge of the town and to isolated peripheral villages. We document multiple situations of environmental injustice and multiple causalities and contingencies in their production. Procedural injustices directly shaped by the public sector were central to the production of distributional injustices in terms of the quality of housing and residential environment, and socio-spatial isolation from the majority population.