Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Politics by Other Greens: The Importance
of Transnational Environmental Justice
Movement Networks
David Naguib Pellow
The race, class, gender, and national inequalities and ecological violence
that are at the core of global capitalism underscore a point that many
participants in environmental movements often overlook: social inequali-
ties are the primary driving forces behind ecological crises. That is, we
should no longer view race, class, and other inequalities as the most
important variables in a general model that might explain environmental
injustice. Rather they are also the most important factors for theorizing
the overall predicament of ecological unsustainability. Social inequalities
are, therefore, not just an afterthought of an environmentally precarious
society; they are at its root.
There are times when we must be reminded of the inescapable inter-
dependence among human societies and of those interdependencies we
experience with broader ecosystems. Thus a close observation of the
myriad forms of institutional violence among human communities always
reveals the associated violence visited on ecosystems. Therefore social
movements confronting human rights abuses—particularly in the global
South—tend to also confront questions of ecological abuse because the
domination over people is reinforced and made possible by the domina-
tion of ecosystems. But the interdependencies that human and nonhuman
systems share underscore that no one is exempt from the far-reaching
impacts of institutional and ecological violence. Thus radical transforma-
tive democratization of societies is a critical component in the global
effort to achieve environmental sustainability and social justice.
In this chapter I investigate the phenomenon of transnational environ-
mental justice (EJ) movements, specifi cally considering the work of activ-
ists, organizations, and networks that constitute this political formation.
Linking environmental justice studies, environmental sociology, ethnic
studies, and social movement theory in new ways, and drawing on inter-
views and archives, I ask how social movements challenge environmental
