Environmental Justice in Latin America: Problems, Promise, and Practice

by David V. Carruthers

Overview

Scholars and activists investigate the emergence of a distinctively Latin American environmental justice movement, offering analysis and case studies that illustrate the connections between popular environmental mobilization and social justice in the region.

Environmental justice concerns form an important part of popular environmental movements in many countries. Activists, scholars, and policymakers in the developing world, for example, increasingly use the tools of environmental justice to link concerns over social justice and environmental well-being. Environmental Justice in Latin America investigates the emergence of a distinctively Latin American environmental justice movement, offering analyses and case studies that examine both the promise and the limits of environmental justice in Latin America and the Caribbean—both as a rallying point for popular mobilization and as a set of principles for analysis and policymaking.

After considering such conceptual issues as the connection between environmental conditions and race, trade, and social justice, the book presents a series of case studies. These studies focus first on industrial development, examining such topics as social tension over “megadevelopment” projects in Argentina and the concentrated industrial waste hazards of the export assembly plants on the U.S.-Mexico border, and then on the power and politics involved in land and resource use. Other chapters explore ecotourism, inequitable land distribution in Brazil, the ongoing struggle for justice and accountability over the former U.S. Navy bombing range in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and water policy in Chile, Bolivia, and Mexico. Taken together, the analyses and case studies suggest that environmental justice—which highlights both broader issues of global injustice and local concerns—holds tremendous promise as a way to understand and address environmental inequities in Latin America and elsewhere.

Contributors
Henri Acselrad, David V. Carruthers, Jordi Díez, Katherine T. McCaffrey, Sarah A. Moore, Peter Newell, Tom Perreault, Carlos Reboratti, Reyes Rodríguez, Juanita Sundberg, Stefanie Wickstrom, Wendy Wolford, Michele Zebich-Knos

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262533003
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/15/2008
Series:	Urban and Industrial Environments
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David V. Carruthers is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University.

David V. Carruthers is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University.

Peter J. Newell is Professor of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. He has published widely on the political economy of the environment, including the books Climate for Change (2000), The Effectiveness of EU Environmental Policy (2000), co-authored with Wyn Grant and Duncan Matthews, Development and the Challenge of Globalisation (2002), co-edited with Shirin M. Rai and Andrew Scott. He currently works on issues of corporate regulation and accountability and the politics of GMO regulation.

David V. Carruthers is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction: Popular Environmentalism and Social Justice in Latin America   David V. Carruthers     1
Environmental Justice in Latin America? Global and Conceptual Challenges
Tracing Race: Mapping Environmental Formations in Environmental Justice Research in Latin America   Juanita Sundberg     25
Contesting Trade Politics in the Americas: The Politics of Environmental Justice   Peter Newell     49
Grassroots Reframing of Environmental Struggles in Brazil   Henri Acselrad     75
Industrial Development and Environmental Justice
Environmental Conflicts and Environmental Justice in Argentina   Carlos Reboratti     101
Waste Practices and Politics: The Case of Oaxaca, Mexico   Sarah A. Moore     119
Where Local Meets Global: Environmental Justice on the US-Mexico Border   David V. Carruthers     137
Environmental Justice in Mexico: The Penoles Case   Jordi Diez   Reyes Rodriguez     161
Land, Resources, and Environmental Justice
Ecotourism, Park Systems, and Environmental Justice in Latin America   Michele Zebich-Knos     185
Environmental Justice and Agricultural Development in the Brazilian Cerrado   Wendy Wolford     213
Popular Protest and Unpopular Policies: State Restructuring, ResourceConflict, and Social Justice in Bolivia   Tom Perreault     239
The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Vieques, Puerto Rico   Katherine T. McCaffrey     263
Cultural Politics and the Essence of Life: Who Controls the Water?   Stefanie Wickstrom     287
About the Contributors     321
Series List     323
Index     325

What People are Saying About This

J. Timmons Roberts

"Finally, a reader on environmental justice in Latin America! This volume brings together fascinating cases from across the region on a range of environmental issues, written by leading experts in the field. Best of all, the work thoughtfully documents and conceptualizes the long history of struggles and injustices in the region which were never called 'environmental justice.' Where the phrase is being adopted, the authors describe how it is also being adapted, transformed, and re-born. This will be required reading in my courses, and I believe it will be pivotal in advancing international discussion on the issue."--J. Timmons Roberts,
Professor of Sociology, and Interim Director, Environmental Science and Policy, The College of William and Mary

Endorsement

Finally, a reader on environmental justice in Latin America! This volume brings together fascinating cases from across the region on a range of environmental issues, written by leading experts in the field. Best of all, the work thoughtfully documents and conceptualizes the long history of struggles and injustices in the region which were never called 'environmental justice.' Where the phrase is being adopted, the authors describe how it is also being adapted, transformed, and re-born. This will be required reading in my courses, and I believe it will be pivotal in advancing international discussion on the issue.

—J. Timmons Roberts, Professor of Sociology, and Interim Director, Environmental Science and Policy, The College of William and Mary

From the Publisher

Finally, a reader on environmental justice in Latin America! This volume brings together fascinating cases from across the region on a range of environmental issues, written by leading experts in the field. Best of all, the work thoughtfully documents and conceptualizes the long history of struggles and injustices in the region which were never called 'environmental justice.' Where the phrase is being adopted, the authors describe how it is also being adapted, transformed, and re-born. This will be required reading in my courses, and I believe it will be pivotal in advancing international discussion on the issue.

—J. Timmons Roberts, Professor of Sociology, and Interim Director, Environmental Science and Policy, The College of William and Mary