Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World

by Julian Agyeman (Editor), Robert D. Bullard (Editor), Bob Evans (Editor)

Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that asustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost alwayslinked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are themost marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises.JustSustainabilities argues that social and environmental justice within and betweennations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promotesustainable development. The book addresses many aspects of the links betweenenvironmental quality and human equality and between sustainability andenvironmental justice more generally. The topics discussed include anthropocentrism;biotechnology; bioprospecting; biocultural assimilation; deep and radical ecology;ecological debt; ecological democracy; ecological footprints; ecologicalmodernization; feminism and gender; globalization; participatory research; place, identity, and legal rights; precaution; risk society; selective victimization; andvaluation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Design, Politics, Social Justice

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just sustainability is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that seeks to bring an environmental justice frame to discussions and definitions of sustainability.

The first three essays offer contrasting (though not conflicting) frameworks to bring environmental justice and sustainability discourses together. The fourth chapter provocatively suggests that social justice and environmental sustainability are mutually exclusive goals. There is no evidence that creating a socially just world will lead to environmental sustainability or creating a sustainable world will lead to a socially just world. The argument is not that we cannot work together to achieve both, but then when we look at the underlying assumptions of each frame we may realize that one does not necessarily lead to the other.

The four chapters in section three provide a range of case studies from the U.S. including Beverly Wright on the Mississippi River Corridor and Devon Pena on land grant struggles in Colorado's San Luis Valley. The last section of the book offers case studies from around the world from Southern Africa to South Asia.

This would be an excellent anthology to assign in a class on sustainability or sustainable development.

[Anurag Verma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite books of all times based on real life examples but some of the content wasleft unread