Abstract

This introductory essay to the Special Issue (SI) “Business and Environmental Justice: a Political Economy Perspective” brings insights from political ecology and political economy into business ethics scholarship. While extractivism and environmental injustice have been extensively examined at macro levels, less attention has been paid to the organizational mechanisms, governance practices, and corporate strategies through which such dynamics are enacted and contested. The contributions to this Special Issue address this gap by examining how corporations shape socio-ecological outcomes across diverse contexts, including relations with communities, states, and global value chains. Together, they reveal the limitations of dominant approaches such as corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, and stakeholder engagement while highlighting the need to engage with plural conceptions of value, knowledge, and justice. Building on these insights, we outline a research agenda organized around key themes, including corporate accountability, methodological innovations grounded in community perspectives, the implications of the green transition, and emerging theoretical connections between business ethics and environmental justice. We argue that advancing EJ within business ethics requires closer engagement with the political-economic structures that underpin environmental harm, as well as openness to alternative socio-ecological arrangements. In this context, the notion of a pluriverse offers a horizon for reimagining more just and sustainable futures.