What is Critical Environmental Justice?

Human societies have always been deeply interconnected with our ecosystems, but today those relationships are witnessing greater frictions, tensions, and harms than ever before. These harms mirror those experienced by marginalized groups across the planet.

In this novel book, David Naguib Pellow introduces a new framework for critically analyzing Environmental Justice scholarship and activism. In doing so he extends the field's focus to topics not usually associated with environmental justice, including the Israel/Palestine conflict and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. In doing so he reveals that ecological violence is first and foremost a form of social violence, driven by and legitimated by social structures and discourses. Those already familiar with the discipline will find themselves invited to think about the subject in a new way.

This book will be a vital resource for students, scholars, and policy makers interested in transformative approaches to one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and the planet.

“"David Pellow has once again pushed the boundaries of environmental justice scholarship with this pivotal new text. What is Critical Environmental Justice? offers a politically robust and theoretically informed way forward that enables environmental justice to be more inclusive while not losing its oppositional nature. This is the book that the environmental justice movement has been waiting for." Laura Pulido, University of Oregon "Asking what environmental justice could look like if we moved beyond race and class, Pellow develops a robust, 'Critical Environmental Justice Studies' framework that draws from numerous scholarly fields, which he then uses to skillfully unite issues such as Black Lives Matter, the U.S. prison industrial complex, and conflicts in Israel and Palestine." Julian Agyeman, Tufts University "[G]roundbreaking. [...] I would characterize the book without hesitation as an essential read. Among the steadily increasing number of new EJ articles and books, this is a rare find: one that broadened my perspective and truly challenged my thinking about environmental justice." Ryan Holifield, Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies”

"David Pellow has once again pushed the boundaries of environmental justice scholarship with this pivotal new text. What is Critical Environmental Justice? offers a politically robust and theoretically informed way forward that enables environmental justice to be more inclusive while not losing its oppositional nature. This is the book that the environmental justice movement has been waiting for."
—Laura Pulido, University of Oregon

"Asking what environmental justice could look like if we moved beyond race and class, Pellow develops a robust, 'Critical Environmental Justice Studies' framework that draws from numerous scholarly fields, which he then uses to skillfully unite issues such as Black Lives Matter, the U.S. prison industrial complex, and conflicts in Israel and Palestine."
—Julian Agyeman, Tufts University

"[G]roundbreaking. [...] I would characterize the book without hesitation as an essential read. Among the steadily increasing number of new EJ articles and books, this is a rare find: one that broadened my perspective and truly challenged my thinking about environmental justice."
—Ryan Holifield, Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies

David Naguib Pellow is Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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