The environmentalism of the poor: A study of ecological conflicts and valuation

Joan Martínez-Alier, Professor of Economics and Economic History, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain The Environmentalism of the Poor has the explicit intention of helping to establish two emerging fields of study – political ecology and ecological economics – whilst also investigating the relations between them. The Environmentalism of the Poor has the explicit intention of helping to establish two emerging fields of study – political ecology and ecological economics – whilst also investigating the relations between them. The book analyses several manifestations of the growing ‘environmental justice movement’, and also of ‘popular environmentalism’ and the ‘environmentalism of the poor’, which will be seen in the coming decades as driving forces in the process to achieve an ecologically sustainable society. The author studies, in detail, many ecological distribution conflicts in history and at present, in urban and rural settings, showing how poor people often favour resource conservation. The environment is thus not so much a luxury of the rich as a necessity of the poor. It concludes with the fundamental questions: who has the right to impose a language of valuation and who has the power to simplify complexity? Joan Martinez-Alier combines the study of ecological conflicts and the study of environmental valuation in a totally original approach that will appeal to a wide cross-section of academics, ecologists and environmentalists. ENDORSEMENTS: ‘[Joan] Martinez-Alier combines the honest discipline of a scholar with the passionate energy of an activist. The result, The Environmentalism of the Poor, is highly recommended!’ – Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland, College Park, US ‘Any book by the ecological economist Joan Martinez-Alier is a Big Publishing Event. . . this is a book by a writer who loves his subject, knows it well, respects its history, and is driven by the desire to do justice. These are qualities enough to send you to the bookshop or the library in search of The Environmentalism of the Poor.’ – Andrew Dobson, Environment Politics Contents: Preface 1. Currents of Environmentalism 2. Ecological Economics: ‘Taking Nature into Account’ 3. Indices of (Un) Sustainability, and Neo-Malthusianism 4. Political Ecology: The Study of Ecological Distribution Conflicts 5. Mangroves Versus Shrimps 6. The Environmentalism of the Poor: Gold, Oil, Forests, Rivers, Biopiracy 7. Indicators of Urban Unsustainability as Indicators of Social Conflict 8. Environmental Justice in the United States and South Africa 9. The State and Other Actors 10. The Ecological Debt 11. On the Relations between Political Ecology and Ecological Economics Bibliography Index