New Book! Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities
Herrera, Veronica
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I hope you are doing well this summer!
I am happy to share that my new book, Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities, is out! I attach a promo code to this email in case you are interested in purchasing it for 30% off.
If you are able to let your librarian know about the title for potentially ordering for your university library, that is very much appreciated!
Also if you are doing research along these lines (environment/Global South) and we are already not in touch, please let me know, I’d like to be aware of it. I attach an abstract below of the new book:
Slow Harms and Citizen Action (Oxford University Press, 2024): (OUP) (Amazon) (available in hardcopy, paperback, digital).
Abstract: Environmental degradation is not new, yet the impact of pollution on human health and wellbeing is growing. According to the World Health
Organization, 12.6 million people die annually from living or working near toxic pollution, amounting to one-quarter of global deaths. Ninety-two percent of these deaths occur in middle or low-income countries, where the majority of the global population lives.
For the millions of communities around the world where pollution is a slow moving, long-standing problem, residents born into toxic exposure often perceive pollution as part of the everyday landscape, particularly in low-resource settings. Local communities
may also be both victims of pollution and complicit in perpetrating it themselves. When and how do people mobilize around slow harms? Moreover, when does citizen action around slow harms unlock policy action?
In Slow Harms and Citizen Action, Veronica Herrera chronicles the struggle against toxic exposure in urban Latin America. Comparing advocacy movements for river pollution
remediation in the capital regions of Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, Herrera explains how citizen-led efforts helped create environmental governance through networks that included impacted communities (bonding mobilization) and resourced allies (bridging mobilization).
Through bonding and bridging mobilization, citizen advocacy for slow harms activated the state's regulatory capacity. Moreover, Herrera illustrates how the most successful environmental movements occurred in settings where established human rights movements
had previously helped dismantle state-sponsored militarized violence. By unpacking human rights movements as thoroughfares for environmental activism, Slow Harms and Citizen Action sheds new light
on the struggles for environmental justice in Latin America.
With appreciation,
Veronica
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Veronica Herrera
Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Political Science
Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA
she/her/ella
New Book: Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities
