Environment, Power, and Justice

“This is an excellent essay collection breaking new ground on environmental histories. Its aim of illuminating how environment, power, and justice are imbricated in Southern Africa builds on old academic foci … but speaks to new ecological issues. Together the chapters in this volume span African thought on ecology in the context of colonialism, water injustice, land dispossession, GMOs, rethinking invasive species and racialized urban development. It adds in a sophisticated way to the literature on environmental justice.” ~Vishwas Satgar, associate professor of international relations, University of Witwatersrand

“Wynn, Jacobs, and Carruthers have carefully brought together a dozen scholars of distinct disciplines and diasporas to offer wisdom and insight into environmental justice and power in southern Africa. In offering specificity and precision as to the ways environmental harm and human inequality vary but conjoin, the volume collectively frames contemporary discussions of justice in concepts of harm from the colonial, postcolonial, and postapartheid pasts. This lively conversation not only gives new perspectives on the contingencies of the past, it opens up possibilities for the future.” ~Emily Wakild, coeditor of The Nature State: Rethinking the History of Conservation

“This is a remarkable volume that offers important new insights into ways in which environmental justice and injustice play out in contemporary and historical Southern Africa. The case studies demonstrate strikingly that environmental injustice varies greatly across time and space and, to paraphrase the editors, Rachel Carson is indeed not the beginning of the southern African ‘story’ of fighting for environmental justice. This is a must-read volume for everyone interested in environmental justice, not only in the Southern African context, but also on the African continent and globally.” ~Phia Steyn, University of Stirling lecturer in African environmental history

“A critical text on postcolonial environmental humanities scholarship and presents environmental justice as a ‘traveling’ multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary concept [that is] useful for scholars in many fields, such as environmental historians, political scientists, sociologists, policy planners, activists, and environmental scientists.” ~H-Environment, H-Net Reviews