New book just out! 'Environmental Justice: Key Issues' ( @routledgebooks) is the first textbook to offer a comprehensive and accessible overview of environmental justice: https://www.routledge.com/Environmental-Justice-Key-Issues/Coolsaet/p/book/9780367139933

Short summary - Long THREAD

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The book starts with a foreword by @DrBobBullard: while we have come a long way since his own 'Dumping in Dixie' (1990), too many residents in frontline communities still have the “wrong complexion for protection.” Hence the continued relevance of EJ movements & studies 2/

Following a brief introduction, @Edge_metron ( @SDSU) lays out a broad historical overview of EJ. By way of introduction to the book, Murdock asks what environmental justice for all truly means in today’s world. The following chapters all provide a part of the answer 3/

The rest of the book is structured into 4 parts: approaches; issues; actors; and future directions of EJ. Part I (Ch 3 – 9) explores some of the most common #theories and #concepts used by scholars to define the “justice” of environmental justice 4/

Ch 3 by Alice Kaswan ( @usflaw) introduces us to the core #distributivejustice concepts. Distributive justice theory helps us understand how the distribution of environmental goods and bads follows predictable patterns of domination and oppression in our societies 5/

In Ch 4, @KimSuiseeya ( @CSDDatNU) draws on key concepts such as #power, #representation, #deliberation, and #democracy to help us understand the procedural and participatory dimensions of EJ, which have long been essential to the EJ movement 6/

. @py_neron and myself ( @EspolLille) introduce the relevance of #recognition theory for EJ in Ch 5. We show how people express their differences through a multitude of relations to the world, and how this influences environmental action and injustices 7/

Next, Breena Holland ( @LehighU) introduces the #capabilities approach. Holland argues it helps us to conceptualize EJ concerns as broader questions about human well-being, which allows understanding how exactly people are being harmed and why that is unjust 8/

In Ch 7, @iokirod ( @GEJGroup_UEA) offers insight into a perspective emerging from the Global South: #decolonial EJ. Rodriguez highlights that movements in the Global South organize their struggles on the basis of non-Western conceptions of justice, nature, culture, & identity 9/

In subsequent Ch 8, Julien-François Gerber ( @erasmusuni) and colleagues identify parallels between EJ and #degrowth movements. Drawing on the rich intellectual tradition of degrowth thought, they contend that environmental injustice and growth form two sides of the same coin 10/

In Ch 9, Julie Sze ( @ucdavis) discusses the dominant concept of #sustainability and explores its relation to EJ. While both concepts have developed contemporaneously, Sze’s “situated sustainability” offers a justice-oriented way of thinking about sustainability 11/

The 2nd part of the book looks at different issues of EJ struggles. 1st-gen EJ studies were concerned primarily with unequal distribution of landfills and waste dumps; Alice Mah ( @SocioWarwick) reflects in Ch 10 on the legacies of these #toxic disasters for the EJ movement 12/

Subsequent EJ work expanded the focus to other environmental issues, covered in the next chapters. @purrdey100 ( @GEJGroup_UEA) focuses on #biodiversity. He shows how some people disproportionately suffer not only from loss of biodiv but also from efforts to prevent this loss 13/

. @gasedwards ( @GEJGroup_UEA) follows in Ch 12 with a discussion of the increasingly popular concept of #climatejustice. Comparing the ethical principles to the political claims of the EJ movement, Edwards argues that #climatejustice is both an objective and a struggle 14/

#Climatejustice connects in important ways with #energy justice, discussed by @RosieDayGeog ( @GeogBham) in Ch 13. Day explores how justice problems arise in relation to both production & consumption of energy, not only of #fossilfuels but also with #renewables 15/

In Ch 14, @cultivatejust explores the intersection of #food & EJ. The inherent injustices in our food system long pre-date the emergence of the EJ movement. Addressing these compels us to consider the links between rural and urban areas which are often left unexplored 16/

EJ in urban areas is the focus of Ch 15 by @CityByrne ( @UTAS_). Byrne examines some of the environmental injustices that stem from the process of #urbanization, in a context where more than half the world’s population now lives in cities 17/

In Ch 16, Rutgerd Boelens ( @WUR) analyses the consequences of the decreasing availability and the unequal distribution of #water from a justice perspective. More than other resources perhaps, water has been at the heart of major EJ struggles in recent years 18/

Ch 17 by Lisa Sun-Hee Park ( @ucsantabarbara) & Stevie Ruiz ( @csunorthridge) is devoted to racial minorities in the US, the main historical EJ actors. Building on ‘nativist environmentalism’, the chapter shows how racism shaped and keeps shaping environmental inequality today 19/

Women have been equally important to the EJ movement but their role has long been ignored, as @dr_smacgregor ( @uomsoss) notes in Ch 18. Drawing on #ecofeminism, MacGregor highlights that women are part of the most severely affected & illustrates how this shapes EJ struggles 20/

In Ch 19, Dimitris Stevis ( @EJCSU) also focuses on actors who are often absent from the EJ narrative: workers. #justtransition, presented as labor unions’ contribution to EJ, can help us challenge the dominant “jobs vs environment” discourse, Stevis argues 21/

Next, @kylepowyswhyte ( @CALMSU) builds on his personal history as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation to introduce a North American #Indigenous perspective of EJ. Drawing on kinship ethics, Whyte examines some of ancient traditions of conceptualizing and practicing EJ 22/

A key idea of Indigenous EJ is reciprocity between humans and non-humans. This implies challenging the implicit anthropocentric bias of most EJ work. Steve Cooke ( @PoliticsLeicsU) helps us do exactly that in Ch 21, using both animal rights and eco-centric approaches to EJ 23/

Part IV reflects on some of the future directions of EJ. In Ch 22, David Pellow ( @ucsantabarbara) draws on his #critical EJ to challenge us to expand our focus across a broader range of categories of difference, of temporal and spatial scales, & beyond the power of the state 24/

. @DSchlosberg ( @SEI_Sydney) follows with Ch 23 examining the claims of movements for food, energy, and fashion ( #sustainablematerialism). Not generally seen as a part of the EJ landscape, they too articulate a range of innovative conceptions of EJ, Schlosberg argues 25/

In the closing chapter, Giovanna Di Chiro ( @swarthmore) draws on #intersectionality to help us uncover the mutually reinforcing systems of oppression shaping environmental injustices. Di Chiro invites us to reflect on our role as scholars to make EJ studies truly transformative /

Thanks to Laura Pulido ( @oregongeography), @profgpw ( @LancsUniLEC) and @FHBBiermann ( @UtrechtUni) for the generous endorsements!

Should be of interest to @NeilMDawson @unaipasku @estevecorbera @terepantere @nicolegrosscamp @Carolewhy @marktebboth @rodd_myers @posh_endra @anninahelena @elizabethdirth @PKashwan @ESG_Project @EnvJustice @LinAlvarezV @JoseLViveroPol @DedeurwaerdereT @PolEcoNet @bcnuej et al

20% discount code available here: http://brendan.coolsaet.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EJKeyIssues_Coolsaet_flyer.pdf