Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders

Local Perspectives on Global Injustices

Bibliographic Data

ID23402133
AuthorsAlison Hope Alkon (0000-0002-8913-2776)
EditorsJoann Carmin, Julian Agyeman (0000-0002-3209-5687)
Year2011
Pages320
Publication date2011-04-04
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueEnvironmental Inequalities Beyond Borders (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherThe MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.7551/mitpress/8759.001.0001
OpenAlexW2591540958
Open LibraryOL29610401M
ISBN9780262295680
LanguageEN
Citations received34

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.

Business · Consumption (sociology) · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental justice · Environmental quality · Foreign direct investment · Human rights · Inequality · Latin Americans · Multinational corporation · Natural resource · Natural resource economics · Political science · Sociology · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Human Rights and Development · Environmental aspects · Environmental degradation · Globalization