Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism

In the first ever theoretical treatment of the environmental justice movement, David Schlosberg demonstrates the development of a new form of `critical' pluralism, in both theory and practice. Taking into account the evolution of environmentalism and pluralism over the course of the century, the author argues that the environmental justice movement and new pluralist theories now represent a considerable challenge to both conventional pluralist thought and the practices of the major groups in the US environmental movement. Much of recent political theory has been aimed at how to acknowledge and recognize, rather than deny, the diversity inherent in contemporary life. In practice, the myriad ways people define and experience the `environment' has given credence to a form of environmentalism that takes difference seriously. The environmental justice movement, with its base in diversity, its networked structure, and its communicative practices and demands, exemplifies the attempt to design political practices beyond those one would expect from a standard interest group in the conventional pluralist model.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. Pluralism and Difference: The Environmental Challenge 1: Introduction: The Environmental Challenge to Pluralism 2: Approaches to Difference in the US Environmental Movement: Classification Schemes, Hegemonic Definitions, and Singular Motivations Part 2. Critical Pluralism in Theory 3: Pluralism and Difference: A Genealogy of Multiplicity 4: Components of a Critical Pluralism: Ethics and Processes Part 3. Environmental Justice: Critical Pluralism in Practice 5: The Politics of Networking in the Grassroots Environmental Justice Movement 6: Communicative Practices and Communicative Demands in the Environmental Justice Movement Part 4. Conclusion 7: Environmental Justice and the Prospects for a Critical Pluralism

About the Author :
David Schlosberg is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Northern Arizona University

Review :
`Contributes to the dialogue concerning education for social justice by extending that discussion to include another dimension to the theoretical debates (the environment) and the concerns for action (environmental action).' John Robinson, Environment Education Research, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2001 `This book should be of interest to environmental philosophers simply as a clearly presented and well-documented synthesis of recent work in political theory and of recent activism in the name of environmental justice. More than that, however, it raises a fundamental challenge to environmental philosophy as it has been practiced.' Robert Kirkman, Environmental Ethics, Vol.22 `fine book' Robert Kirkman, Environmental Ethics, Vol.22 bold study of the US environmental justice ... movement's philosophy. D.L. Feldman, Choice, Sept. 00.