From the periphery to the centre: Community engagement and justice in conservation decision making

Conservation nowadays is understood as a broad concept that considers objects as contextual and contingent. The social dimensions of the conservation object, however, have been successively overlooked in most conservation endeavours. Although communities are considered an important stakeholder in conservation decision-making processes, engagement with communities in practice is clearly deficient. The lack of communication with these communities can be understood as a symptom of the overall misrecognition of this peripheral stakeholder that raises questions concerning the justice of the conservation process in its social context. The aim of this paper is to explore how the notion of justice can be applied to conservation decision-making through the example of two performance-based artworks. Finally, a reflective approach that acknowledges the ‘documentation of absence’ is suggested.