In 'Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada' (http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=299172596), Agyeman and his co-editors argue that environmental justice as a concept has evolved over the past two decades to offer new, challenging directions for social movements, public policy, and public planning. Researchers worldwide now position social equity as a building block for sustainability. Yet the relationship between social equity and the environmental aspects of sustainability has been little considered in Canada, particularly in studies and discussions focused primarily on the environment.
Speaking for Ourselves draws together scholars and activists -- Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, established and new -- who bring equity issues to the forefront by considering environmental justice in specifically Canadian cases and contexts and from a variety of perspectives, including those of First Nations and women. The contributors expand notions of justice and the concepts involved in environmental justice beyond their European origins and limits to demonstrate new ways of working toward environmental sustainability and social justice.
In 'Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union' (http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11804), Agyeman and Ogneva Himmelberger argue that The legacy of environmental catastrophe in the states of the former Soviet Union includes desertification, pollution, and the toxic aftermath of industrial accidents, the most notorious of which was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. The book examines the development of environmental activism in Russia and the former Soviet republics in response to these problems and its effect on policy and planning. It also shows that because of increasing economic, ethnic, and social inequality in the former Soviet states, debates over environmental justice are beginning to come to the fore. The book explores the varying environmental, social, political, and economic circumstances of these countries—which range from the Western-style democracies of the Baltic states to the totalitarian regimes of Central Asia—and how they affect the ecological, environmental, and public health.
Among the topics covered are environmentalism in Russia (including the progressive nature of its laws on environmental protection, which are undermined by the instability of the legal environment and a failure to implement laws); the effect of oil wealth on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan; the role of nationalism in Latvian environmentalism; the struggle of Russia's indigenous peoples for environmental justice; public participation in Estonia's environmental movement; and lack of access to natural capital in Tajikistan. Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union makes clear that although fragile transition economies, varying degrees of democratization, and a focus on national security can stymie progress toward "just sustainability," the diverse states of the former Soviet Union are making some progress toward sustainability and environmental justice.