Land, Water, Air and Freedom

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Land, Water, Air and Freedom

The Making of World Movements for Environmental Justice

9781035312764 Edward Elgar Publishing
Joan Martínez-Alier, Professor of Economics and Economic History, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, Recipient of the Balzan Prize in 2020 and the Holberg Prize in 2023
Publication Date:December 2023 ISBN:978 1 03531 276 4 Extent:c 798 pp
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This ground-breaking book makes visible the global counter-movement for environmental justice. Combining 500 in-depth empirical analyses of environmental conflict with expansive theorising in ecological economics and political ecology, Joan Martínez-Alier reveals that though grassroots movements for socio-economic sustainability are deeply diverse, there are profound global patterns of environmental action and empowerment.

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This ground-breaking book makes visible the global counter-movement for environmental justice. Combining 500 in-depth empirical analyses of environmental conflict with expansive theorising in ecological economics and political ecology, Joan Martínez-Alier reveals that though grassroots movements for socio-economic sustainability are deeply diverse, there are profound global patterns of environmental action and empowerment.

Using rich personal and community stories of conflict drawn from the Atlas of Environmental Justice, Martínez-Alier analyses the commonalities shared by environmental defenders and offenders respectively. Each narrative is set within a cohesive framework, emphasising the diverse vocabularies, iconographies, and valuation languages of poor and indigenous activists without losing sight of the global scale of climate action and biodiversity loss. Revealing the circularity gap at the centre of the industrial economy, the book focuses on the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal. Alongside exploring diverse geographies of resistance and protagonists of conflict, chapters delve into commodity extraction, corporate irresponsibility, unequal trade, and feminist neo-Malthusianism.

Land, Water, Air and Freedom will be essential reading for students and scholars of environmental social sciences and humanities, anthropology, geography, international relations, and ecology. It will also guide activists seeking to understand their place in the movements for environmental justice and environmental sustainability.
Critical Acclaim
‘This book is the last door of a trilogy, as the author states, that opens a passage from the nearest to the remotest ecologies of the world transformed into commodity frontiers. It forcefully proves that environmental justice movements are at the same time movements for life and freedom. Joan Martínez-Alier's activism and solidarity-based work in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is to a large extent comparable to what Marx achieved in the second half of the 19th century. Both trace the transformations unfolded by the commodity form: Marx's trilogy built a socio-historical critique of political economy, revealed class conflict as a social distribution and valuation conflict, and recognized the class struggle for social justice. Martínez-Alier's trilogy has built an ecological critique of economics, revealed ecological distribution and valuation conflicts, and recognized the world-movements for environmental justice.’
– Zehra Taşdemir Yaşın, University of Ankara, Turkey

‘Twenty years after the publication of the now classic The Environmentalism of the Poor, Joan Martínez-Alier, the most outstanding environmental justice scholar of our time has gifted humanity with a new book: Land, Water, Air and Freedom - The Making of World Movements for Environmental Justice. With emphasis on the political force that aspires to bring social justice through environmental struggles, this tour de force is a product of many decades of Joan's deep commitment to environmental justice through the scholar-activist method of work.’
– Saturnino M. Borras Jr., International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), the Netherlands

‘Land, Water, Air and Freedom is a tour de force, deftly weaving together insights from decades of research on ecological distribution conflicts and the global environmental justice movement. Spanning an impressive range of regions and issues, Professor Martínez-Alier's inspiring research sheds light on the complex power relations and socio-ecological processes surrounding environmental justice struggles. This vital book challenges dominant economic paradigms, identifies alternative pathways toward wellbeing, sustainability, and justice, and offers important tools for activism.’
– Alice Mah, University of Glasgow, UK

‘While much research has addressed environmental conflicts as post-materialist politics, this precious volume provides much needed information on the environmentalism of the poor. It not only provides an extremely rich description of the many struggles for a future which is socially and environmentally just taking place all over the world, but also develops an innovative theoretical framework to analyse an emerging global movement for environmental justice.’
– Donatella Della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

‘Drawing on a treasure trove of cases from the acclaimed EJ Atlas, renowned ecological economist Joan Martínez-Alier has produced a breathtaking study of ecological distribution conflicts around the world. This book will fundamentally transform our thinking and actions concerning environmental justice in the 21st century.’
– David N. Pellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, US
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