The Slums of Aspen by Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Hardcover, 9780814768037 | Buy online at The Nile
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The Slums of Aspen

Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden

Author: Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Pellow   Series: Nation of Nations

Reveals the dark underside of environmental privilege

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Summary

Reveals the dark underside of environmental privilege

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Description

Winner, Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award, presented by the Environment & Technology section of the American Sociological Association
How the elite ski resort reshaped the socio-economic and demographic landscape in pursuit of profit and pleasure
Environmentalism usually calls to mind images of peace and serenity, a oneness with nature, and a shared sense of responsibility. But one town in Colorado, under the guise of environmental protection, passed a resolution limiting immigration, bolstering the privilege of the wealthy and scapegoating Latin American newcomers for the area’s current and future ecological problems. This might have escaped attention save for the fact that this wasn’t some rinky-dink backwater. It was Aspen, Colorado, playground of the rich and famous and the West’s most elite ski town.
Tracking the lives of immigrant laborers through several years of exhaustive fieldwork and archival digging, The Slums of Aspen tells a story that brings together some of the most pressing social problems of the day: environmental crises, immigration, and social inequality. Park and Pellow demonstrate how these issues are intertwined in the everyday experiences of people who work and live in this wealthy tourist community.
Offering a new understanding of a little known class of the super-elite, of low-wage immigrants (mostly from Latin America) who have become the foundation for service and leisure in this famous resort, and of the recent history of the ski industry, Park and Pellow expose the ways in which Colorado boosters have reshaped the landscape and altered ecosystems in pursuit of profit and pleasure. Of even greater urgency, they frame how environmental degradation and immigration reform have become inextricably linked in many regions of the American West, a dynamic that interferes with the efforts of valorous environmental causes, often turning away from conservation and toward insidious racial privilege.

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Critic Reviews

“"Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class." Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and Whiteout: Lost in Aspen"Park and Pellow's groundbreaking book is a must-read." Juliet Schor, Boston College"Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class." Ted Conover, author ofNewjackandWhiteout"A brilliant, darkly funny expose of Aspen, the ruling classes' green utopia, and the invisible, scorned immigrant labor that makes it all possible." Mike Davis, author ofMagical UrbanismandNo One is Illegal”

"A pair of sociologists, in their new book, paint a damning picture of the stark inequalities between local immigrant laborers and Aspen vacationers and the wealthy homeowners they serve." Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Online "Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class." - Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and Whiteout: Lost in Aspen "Park and Pellow's groundbreaking book is a must-read." Juliet Schor, Boston College "Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class." Ted Conover, author of Newjack and Whiteout "A brilliant, darkly funny expose of Aspen, the ruling classes' green utopia, and the invisible, scorned immigrant labor that makes it all possible." Mike Davis, author of Magical Urbanism and No One is Illegal

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About the Author

Lisa Sun-Hee Park (Author)
Lisa Sun-Hee Park is Professor and Chair of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Entitled to Nothing: The Struggle for Immigrant Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform as well as co-author of The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy and The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden.
David Pellow (Author)
David N. Pellow is the Dehlsen Chair of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His teaching and research focus on environmental and ecological justice in the U.S. and globally.

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More on this Book

Winner, Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award, presented by the Environment & Technology section of the American Sociological Association Environmentalism usually calls to mind images of peace and serenity, a oneness with nature, and a shared sense of responsibility. But one town in Colorado, under the guise of environmental protection, passed a resolution limiting immigration, bolstering the privilege of the wealthy and scapegoating Latin American newcomers for the area's current and future ecological problems. This might have escaped attention save for the fact that this wasn't some rinky-dink backwater. It was Aspen, Colorado, playground of the rich and famous and the West's most elite ski town. Tracking the lives of immigrant laborers through several years of exhaustive fieldwork and archival digging, The Slums of Aspen tells a story that brings together some of the most pressing social problems of the day: environmental crises, immigration, and social inequality. Park and Pellow demonstrate how these issues are intertwined in the everyday experiences of people who work and live in this wealthy tourist community. Offering a new understanding of a little known class of the super-elite, of low-wage immigrants (mostly from Latin America) who have become the foundation for service and leisure in this famous resort, and of the recent history of the ski industry, Park and Pellow expose the ways in which Colorado boosters have reshaped the landscape and altered ecosystems in pursuit of profit and pleasure. Of even greater urgency, they frame how environmental degradation and immigration reform have become inextricably linked in many regions of the American West, a dynamic that interferes with the efforts of valorous environmental causes, often turning away from conservation and toward insidious racial privilege.

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Product Details

Publisher
New York University Press
Published
1st September 2011
Pages
284
ISBN
9780814768037

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