Description
Book SynopsisReveals the dark underside of environmental privilege
Trade ReviewThe authors...make a convincing and highly disturbing case about how some of the nation's most prominent promoters of sustainability depend on the labor of immigrants to enjoy privileged lives amidst a lovely environment. * In These Times *
Documents, observation, and interview material over a number of years combine to give a full picture of the situation...the book's rich background of Aspen and the whole state's history is nicely provided, and the interesting flow of history and people's everday lives make Slums of Aspen very accessible. * American Journal of Sociology *
Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class. -- Ted Conover,author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and Whiteout: Lost in Aspen
As Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Naguib Pellow make clear, we cant tackle todays environmental problems without simultaneously solving social ones. The Slums of Aspen is a must read for all of us who want not just a green and healthy economy, but also a fair and just one. -- Annie Leonard,Author and Host, The Story of Stuff
As the limits to growth discourse gains currency, Park and Pellows groundbreaking book is a must-read. Tracing the nativism that has bedeviled the environmental movement for decades, they tell the fascinating story of eco-conscious, upscale Aspen, which was gripped by anti-immigrant fervor in the name of 'saving the planet.' A great addition for courses on environment, race, class, social activism and contemporary problems. -- Juliet Schor,Boston College, and author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
Its the perfect text to look at the intersection between social and environmental issues. -- Marci Krivonen * Aspen Public Radio *
A pair of sociologists, in their new book, paint a damning picture of the stark inequalities between local immigrant laborers and Aspen vacationers and the wealthy homeowners they serve. -- Andrew Travers * Aspen Daily News *
Park and Pellow offer a blistering critique of environmental privilege and immigrant discrimination within the Rocky Mountains' elite playground of Aspen, Colorado...their argument effectively extends well beyond Aspen's ski slopes and elite shopping streets. -- M.M. Gunter Jr. * Choice *
The Slums of Aspentouches a wide variety of important topics both inside and outside the subdiscipline of environmental sociology. It takes long-lasting debates about population growth and examines them anew. It should be of interest to scholars in social movements, race, labor studies, political sociology, leisure studies, to name a few. Its main strength is that it engages so many different, and new areas, of environmental justice, and most importantly, provides a big step forward toward understanding the causes and consequences of environmental privilege, as well as the struggles by some to oppose its racially motivated 'green' politics. -- Justin Farrell * Mobilization *
A brilliant, darkly funny expose of Aspen, the ruling classes' green utopia, and the invisible, scorned immigrant labor that makes it all possible. -- Mike Davis,author of Magical Urbanism and No One is Illegal
[Park and Pellow] provide an impactful account of a wealthy Colorado community's attempt to limit the number of immigrants in their neighborhoods and their reasoning for doing so: environmental protection. * The National Memo *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Environmental Privilege in the Rocky Mountains 1 The Logic of Aspen 2 The Ultimate Elite Retreat 3 Living in Someone Else's Paradise 4 Nativism and the Environmental Movement 5 Advocacy and Social Justice Workers Conclusion: Dreams of Privilege/Visions of Justice Notes on Research Methods Notes References Index About the Authors
