Teach with the EJAtlas


The EJAtlas has proven to be a great pedagogical tool. Professors from Universities in Europe, Asia, and the Americas are using the platform to teach about environmental justice, ecological economics, political ecologí and more. The EJAtlas can be used to illustrate some of the theories with examples of case studies documented. It has also been offered as a tool for students to navigate and find information about a particular topic, commodity, company or region, and then provide an oral or written discussion.


Finally, it is also very popular among students and educators to include the documentation of an environmental conflict in the EJAtlas as an assignment of a course. It is a highly formative activity for the students, as they get to apply the research and analytical tools, and mobilise the concepts taught in the course, in real-life practice. The students are generally very motivated to write on a platform that documents and denounces environmental injustices. They are recognised for their work with a published essay and feel they contribute to ongoing struggles and research efforts.


You can read more about teaching with the EJAtlas in our article on the topic:

Walter, M., Weber, L., & Temper, L. (2023). The EJAtlas: An Unexpected Pedagogical Tool to Teach and Learn About Environmental Social Sciences. In The Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology: A Companion in Honour of Joan Martinez-Alier (pp. 211-218). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-22566-6_18


If you are a professor wishing to incorporate the EJAtlas as an assignment for your course, we ask you to follow the next steps:

  • If you haven't, please contact us at ejoltmap[at]gmail.com 

  • Create a user by signing up here. The professor and all students will access the site with the same user.

  • Get acquainted with the format and style of the EJAtlas by reading a few existing cases in the EJAtlas.

  • Choose the conflicts to be written. Make sure they are not already included in the EJAtlas. Conflicts that the students are already familiar with usually work best (ie. close to their place of origin). It is interesting that all students fill in related cases, either by theme, commodity, company, or location to facilitate comparative discussions. In some cases the students can contribute to ongoing research projects with their assignments, please contact us.

  • Take time to introduce the students to the EJAtlas and make sure the students follow the guide on how to enter a case. Consider a total time commitment of 25h for documenting one case, organise student groups accordingly.

  • You will pre-moderate all the students' cases before they submit them to moderation, ensuring that they have filled in each section and referenced their work correctly. 

  • Once pre-moderated, you can submit each case to moderation by clicking the dedicated button in the conflict “meta information tab”.

  • We will read and moderate each case, leaving feedback/any comments in the “chat” tab of each conflict.

  • The students will respond to the feedback via the chat tab and make relevant edits to the case. Please factor in at least one week for moderation, and another for response by students.

  • If the cases have enough quality they will be published. If they wish, the students can be publicly credited for their work by writing their names as contributors in the “meta information” tab of their case.