Overview

Case studies demonstrate the spatial disconnect between global consumption and production and its effects on local environmental quality and human rights. Multinational corporations often exploit natural resources or locate factories in poor countries far from the demand for the products and profits that result. Developed countries also routinely dump hazardous materials and produce greenhouse gas emissions that have a disproportionate impact on developing countries. This book investigates how these and other globalized practices exact high social and environmental costs as poor, local communities are forced to cope with depleted resources, pollution, health problems, and social and cultural disruption. Case studies drawn from Africa, Asia, the Pacific Rim, and Latin America critically assess how diverse types of global inequalities play out on local terrains. These range from an assessment of the pros and cons of foreign investment in Fiji to an account of the work of transnational activists combating toxic waste disposal in Mozambique. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate the spatial disconnect between global consumption and production on the one hand and local environmental quality and human rights on the other. The result is a rich perspective not only on the ways industries, governments, and consumption patterns may further entrench existing inequalities but also on how emerging networks and movements can foster institutional change and promote social equality and environmental justice.

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9780262515870

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Reviews

[A] far-reaching and deeply engaging look at...issues in international environmental law. -- Luke Boughen, International Environmental Agreements This work...is an excellent compilation of case studies...to 'illustrate how a globalized world is fundamentally altering the environmental justice terrain.' The examples are unique and engaging. Highly recommended. With valuable practical and theoretical contributions, the global scope of this volume is admirable. The book well serves its primary audience: scholars and development professionals interested in justice-oriented dimensions of globalization and environmental inequality. -- Human Ecology

[A] far-reaching and deeply engaging look at issues in international environmental law. -- Luke Boughen, International Environmental Agreements This work is an excellent compilation of case studies to 'illustrate how a globalized world is fundamentally altering the environmental justice terrain.' The examples are unique and engaging. Highly recommended. With valuable practical and theoretical contributions, the global scope of this volume is admirable. The book well serves its primary audience: scholars and development professionals interested in justice-oriented dimensions of globalization and environmental inequality. -- Human Ecology

This book is a shining example of engaged scholarship. Carmin and Agyeman aim to advance our understanding of, and ability to act upon, environmental inequalities around the world, and they achieve this twofold objective nicely. In my field of urban and regional planning, the role of institutions that the book highlights is increasingly key, and I see this book as a solid contribution to my field as well as to sociology, political science, anthropology, international studies, ethnic studies, and environmental health studies. --Keith Pezzoli, Urban Studies and Planning Program, University of California, San Diego

Author Information

JoAnn Carmin is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Julian Agyeman is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the coauthor of Sharing Cities and the coeditor of The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America, each published by the MIT Press. Julian Agyeman is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the coauthor of Sharing Cities and the coeditor of The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America, each published by the MIT Press. JoAnn Carmin is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Isabelle Anguelovski is Marie Curie Fellow and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autò noma de Barcelona. Saleem H. Ali is Associate Professor of Environmental Planning at the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and holds adjunct faculty appointments at Brown University and the United Nations mandated University for Peace. He is the author of Mining: The Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts. Tammy L. Lewis is Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York/Brooklyn College and Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center in Sociology and Earth and Environmental Sciences. Alison Hope Alkon is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Pacific. David Naguib Pellow is Don A. Martindale Endowed Chair in Sociology at the University of Minnesota. Among his books are the award-winning Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (MIT Press, 2002) and Power, Justice, and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement (coedited with Robert Brulle; MIT Press, 2005.)

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