Decolonizing Environmentalism: Alternative Visions and Practices of Environmental Action

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Recent debates emphasize the urgency of making environmental movements more inclusive, yet they do so without deeper scrutiny of the core tenets of environmentalism. Despite efforts by some groups, there is little acknowledgment of the continuing failure of the movement in addressing environmental injustices experienced by racial minorities. Decolonizing Environmentalism makes visible the simplifications and erasures of mainstream environmental movements, while reimagining our collective commitment to environmental stewardship in a way that builds on the knowledge and praxis of indigenous people, racial minorities, and rural communities. The authors deconstruct popular ideas, such as 'green consumption' and 'sustainable development' to show how these concepts rest on misleading assumptions which are based on colonial conceptualizations of conquering nature and European Modernitys view of there being a fundamental separation between nature and society. The authors showcase alternative imaginations of environmentalism founded on materialist environmentalism that draws on indigenous living traditions of nature-society integration, with insights from contemporary movements such as The La Via Campesina Movement for Food Sovereignty, grassroots movements in Puerto Rico in response to Hurricane Maria, and the Fossil Free Movement among others.

Author Bio

Prakash Kashwan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Research Program on Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, USA. He is the author of Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania, and Mexico (2017) and a Co-Editor of the journal Environmental Politics. His research has been cited in national and international media, including the New York Times, Deutsche Welle, Huffington Post, NPR, and Scientific American. Aseem Hasnain is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Bridgewater State University, USA.