Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (Urban and Industrial Environments)

Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked 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 the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises. Just Sustainabilities argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses many aspects of the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice more generally. The topics discussed include anthropocentrism; biotechnology; bioprospecting; biocultural assimilation; deep and radical ecology; ecological debt; ecological democracy; ecological footprints; ecological modernization; feminism and gender; globalization; participatory research; place, identity, and legal rights; precaution; risk society; selective victimization; and valuation.