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Focusing on the lived experiences of Afro-Colombians processing and resisting violence against their ecological communities,
Visions of Global Environmental Justice employs accounts of the supernatural narratively and analytically to frame a contemporary struggle for environmental justice. The book applies Achille Mbembe’s theorization of necropolitics to the environmental racism of the US War on Drugs in Colombia, specifically the aerial eradication of coca in the
comunidades negras of the Pacific Coast. Through critical examination and deconstruction of transnational mythmaking and local oral tradition,
Visions of Global Environmental Justice illustrates that non/humans rendered expendable by US-driven drug (necro)politics are indispensable to both the conceptualization and the realization of environmental justice globally. Far from being a study singularly focused on the symptoms of environmental issues, this book creatively guides us toward a broader understanding of environmental racism and justice across geographic scales and non/human agencies.
Alexander Huezo is Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
"I have never encountered any scholarship that seeks to place environmental justice studies in conversation with the supernatural—until now. Visions of Global Environmental Justice presents a powerful and creative articulation of how accounts of the supernatural function as cautionary tales about socioecological limits and human/nonhuman relations. Alexander Huezo's push for a new global EJ studies framework is innovative and long overdue."—David Naguib Pellow, author of What is Critical Environmental Justice?
"In this remarkable, completely original examination of the War on Drugs in Colombia, Huezo employs the notion of supernatural visions to theorize the global and non/human dimensions of environmental justice in powerful, fascinating, and innovative ways. Drawing on decades-long engagement with rural Afro-Colombian communities, this is a beautifully written (and illustrated!) major contribution to environmental justice studies and political ecology."—Ulrich Oslender, author of The Geographies of Social Movements: Afro-Colombian Mobilization and the Aquatic Space
"Huezo has written a truly original and inspiring scholarly monograph, pushing the boundaries of environmental justice to consider, among other things, globalization, the War on Drugs, and the supernatural. Huezo does this through the power of storytelling by farmers, activists, and grass roots organizations, which connects transnational US foreign policy, specifically war on drugs policy, to localized supernatural visions, violence, and environmental racism in Colombia. This book is a must-read for any person interested in environmental justice studies and its emerging subfield, global environmental justice studies."—Michael Mascarenhas, author of Toxic Water, Toxic System: Environmental Racism and Michigan's Water War
"By centering his analysis on accounts of supernatural visions, Visions of Global Environmental Justice offers an innovative exploration of the experiences of Afro-Colombian communities on the front lines of multiple forms of violence. Written in accessible prose, Huezo's book analyzes how the insights of the environmental justice movements can illuminate neglected dimensions of the US War on Drugs."—Winifred Tate, author of Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats: US Policymaking in Colombia
234 pp.6 x 9Illus: 12 b/w illustrations, 7 color illustrations, 3 color maps
9780520387935$34.95|£30.00Paper
Feb 2025