A measure of fairness: An investigative framework to explore perceptions of fairness and justice in a real-life social conflict

Conflicts or disagreements within communities have become commonplace where decisions concerning the allocation of natural resources must be made. Institutions responsible for governance and environmental decision-making frequently struggle to gain broad community and stakeholder approval for proposals concerning natural resources such as water allocation. At the centre of such complex problems are issues of equity and justice. Although there is a substantial body of research and theory on justice, much of this has been in the abstract or external to a social context. The lack of contextually applied justice research is recognized as a gap in environmental resource allocation research. Theories and constructs from several disciplines can be used to unravel the tangle of issues embedded within social problems. This paper outlines one such transdisciplinary research approach and provides an overview of its first application in the understanding of a real-life social conflict concerning the allocation of water for irrigation farming.