Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism

by David Schlosberg

Overview

In the first ever theoretical treatment of the environmental justice movement, David Schlosberg demonstrates the development of a new form of 'critical' pluralism, in both theory and practice. Taking into account the evolution of environmentalism and pluralism over the course of the century, the author argues that the environmental justice movement and new pluralist theories now represent a considerable challenge to both conventional pluralist thought and the practices of the major groups in the US environmental movement. Much of recent political theory has been aimed at how to acknowledge and recognize, rather than deny, the diversity inherent in contemporary life. In practice, the myriad ways people define and experience the 'environment' has given credence to a form of environmentalism that takes difference seriously. The environmental justice movement, with its base in diversity, its networked structure, and its communicative practices and demands, exemplifies the attempt to design political practices beyond those one would expect from a standard interest group in the conventional pluralist model.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191522376
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	04/01/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)
File size:	409 KB

About the Author

David Schlosberg is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Northern Arizona University

Table of Contents

Part 1. Pluralism and Difference: The Environmental Challenge1. Introduction: The Environmental Challenge to Pluralism2. Approaches to Difference in the US Environmental Movement: Classification Schemes, Hegemonic Definitions, and Singular MotivationsPart 2. Critical Pluralism in Theory3. Pluralism and Difference: A Genealogy of Multiplicity4. Components of a Critical Pluralism: Ethics and ProcessesPart 3. Environmental Justice: Critical Pluralism in Practice5. The Politics of Networking in the Grassroots Environmental Justice Movement6. Communicative Practices and Communicative Demands in the Environmental Justice MovementPart 4. Conclusion7. Environmental Justice and the Prospects for a Critical Pluralism

Editorial Reviews

"Unlike many books in political science, Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism will be as helpful to political activists as it will be to academics....This book is important because it is one of the first by a political theorist to examine the theoretical implications of the environmental justice movement carefully."—American Political Science Review

From the Publisher