Awards

• Shortlisted for Society for the Study of Social Problems C. Wright Mills Award 2007.
• Winner of Finalist, 2007 C. Wright Mills Award given by the Society for the Study of Social Problems 2007

Overview

Examines the export of hazardous wastes to poor communities of color around the world and charts the global social movements that challenge them. Every year, nations and corporations in the ""global North"" produce millions of tons of toxic waste. Too often this hazardous material—inked to high rates of illness and death and widespread ecosystem damage—is exported to poor communities of color around the world. In Resisting Global Toxics, David Naguib Pellow examines this practice and charts the emergence of transnational environmental justice movements to challenge and reverse it. Pellow argues that waste dumping across national boundaries from rich to poor communities is a form of transnational environmental inequality that reflects North/South divisions in a globalized world, and that it must be theorized in the context of race, class, nation, and environment. Building on environmental justice studies, environmental sociology, social movement theory, and race theory, and drawing on his own research, interviews, and participant observations, Pellow investigates the phenomenon of global environmental inequality and considers the work of activists, organizations, and networks resisting it. He traces the transnational waste trade from its beginnings in the 1980s to the present day, examining global garbage dumping, the toxic pesticides that are the legacy of the Green Revolution in agriculture, and today's scourge of dumping and remanufacturing high tech and electronics products. The rise of the transnational environmental movements described in Resisting Global Toxics charts a pragmatic path toward environmental justice, human rights, and sustainability.

Full Product Details

9780262162449

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Reviews

Resisting Global Toxics provides a path breaking synthesis of the intersection of health, environment, and justice impacts of industrialization in the era of globalization. The book provides a rich blend of theoretical and activist perspectives and highlights the role of NGOs that are working to fill in the gaps in the absence of effective global governance. By drawing on his research and participation with grass roots groups, David Pellow is able to document a compelling and grounded form of global citizenship through the prism of race and class consciousness. He shows how local and transnational groups around the world are strategically addressing the full life-cycle impacts of globalization--from hazardous production through hazardous waste disposal. As he says, 'Transnational environmental justice offenses require transnational responses.' This book provides authentic and compelling examples of such responses that are making real impacts. --Ted Smith, founder and Senior Strategist, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition; Coordinator of International Campaign for Responsible Technology

Author Information

David Naguib Pellow is Don A. Martindale Endowed Chair in Sociology at the University of Minnesota. Among his books are the award-winning Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (MIT Press, 2002) and Power, Justice, and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement (coedited with Robert Brulle; MIT Press, 2005.)

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