Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 388
•
Trim: 6½ x 9⅜
978-1-4422-0861-2 • Hardback • September 2011 • $162.00 • (£125.00)
978-1-4422-0863-6 • eBook • September 2011 • $153.50 • (£119.00)
Patricia Widener is assistant professor of sociology at Florida Atlantic University.
Preface
Chapter 1: 30 Years of Oil Wealth & Poverty
Chapter 2: Lago Agrio: Community-driven Oil Justice
Chapter 3: Quito's NGOs: Realizing an Environmental Fund
Chapter 4: Mindo: Oil and Tourism May Mix
Chapter 5: Esmeraldas: Finding Dignity
Chapter 6: Transnational Responses: Evidence for a Southern-led Global Democracy
Chapter 7: Post-OCP: Governing and Contesting Correa and China in the Amazon
Appendix I: Data Collection
In Oil Injustice, Widener skillfully exposes the global political economy as a bully that systematically and strategically exploits both the world's natural resources and its poorest citizens. Seemingly beyond reproach 'the fight continues' as a latter day David and Goliath struggle by local and transnational activists to effect systemic change.
— Julian Agyeman, Tufts University
From Ecuador to China to multinational companies to indigenous mobilization, Dr. Widener offers a fascinating, comprehensive and sobering account of the complex transnational politics of oil in the 21st century.
— Sanjeev Khagram, University of Washington; co-author of The Transnational Studies Reader
In this nuanced and highly insightful book, Patricia Widener demonstrates the critical value of bringing a multi-scalar approach to the study of environmental justice conflicts. From Ecuador to the U.S. and China, she carefully examines the contradictory and sometimes maddening local, national, and global dimensions of oil politics. She forcefully contends that neither capitalism, socialism, nor global North environmentalists are capable of securing a sustainable future for the Earth and humanity. Those global South communities most affected by oil injustice must lead the fight toward a post-petroleum economy. The rest of us can either get on board or get out of the way.
— David Naguib Pellow, Don Martindale Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota
—Compares the diverse responses of four communities in Ecuador to the construction of an oil pipeline owned and operated by multinational corporations. The communities include an oil-producing community in the Amazon, professional conservation organizations in the capital Quito, an ecotourism town in the Andean Mountains, and an oil-exporting community on the Pacific coast.
—Illustrates the tensions between conservation organizations and affected communities as well as their resistance and negotiations through the perspectives of global environmental justice and political economy.
—Analyzes the influence and limits of transnational environmental campaigns of opposition and negotiation.
—Addresses the recent transition from Northern multinational companies to Chinese- and state-owned oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and examines how communities and NGOs are responding to these changes.