Andrew Szasz, "EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental
Justice," University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Here's an excerpt from the back cover:
This book reconstructs the growth of a powerful movement around the question
of toxic waste. Szasz follows the issue as it moves from the world of
"official" policymaking in Washington, onto the nation's television screens
and into popular consciousness, and then into America's neighborhoods,
spurring the formation of thousands of local, community-based groups. He
shows how, in less than a decade, a rich infrastructure of more permanent
social organizations emerged from this movement, expanding its focus to
include issues like municipal waste, military toxics, and pesticides. In
the growth of this movement, we witness the birth of a radical environmental
populism.
Here Szasz identifies the force that pushed environmental policy away from
the traditional approach, pollution removal, toward the superior logic of
pollution prevention. He discusses the conflicting official responses to
the movement's evolution, revealing that, despite initial resistance,
lawmakers eventually sought to appease popular discontent by strengthening
toxic waste laws. In its success, Szasz suggests, this movement may even
prove to be the vehicle for reinvigorating progressive politics in the U.S.
Michael R. Meuser
Sociology Board
Stevenson College
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
(408)458-4245
meuser@cats.ucsc.edu