Transforming knowledge creation for environmental and epistemic justice

• The globalization of Environmental Justice (EJ) calls for a relational understanding of scale.
• Environmental conflicts spur productive alternatives, demonstrating the positive ideal of EJ.
• Deliberative methods in the university can promote the definition of shared values and vision in research.
• Co-design informed by ‘care-full’ scholarship creates spaces for convivial sharing.
• Power imbalances bound up in research co-production are not resolved through participation.

Environmental Justice is both a field of study and a social movement. This dialectical relationship between theory and praxis constitutes the basis of its empirical and theoretical richness. However, there is a persistent divide between theorist and activist approaches to Environmental Justice that needs to be abridged. This paper explains how through co-design we delved into the transformative potential of EJ research with and for social movements and aimed to unearth some of the tensions and colliding epistemologies inherent in co-production of knowledge.Activities included workshops and consultations, visioning through appreciative enquiry, a pro-action café, and an online survey.We conclude that co-design can help inform more just, inclusive and socially relevant scholarship, however we caution that the needed transformation in knowledge production and the dismantling of hierarchies remains an unfinished process that calls for ongoing attention to power dynamics and ‘care-full’ scholarship.