The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America's Eden

by Lisa Sun-Hee Park, David Pellow

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814768037
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Series:	Nation of Nations , #2
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Environmental Privilege in the Rocky Mountains
1 The Logic of Aspen
2 The Ultimate Elite Retreat
3 Living in Someone Else’s Paradise
4 Nativism and the Environmental Movement
5 Advocacy and Social Justice Workers
Conclusion: Dreams of Privilege/Visions of Justice
Notes on Research Methods
Notes
References
Index
About the Authors

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Park and Pellow offer a blistering critique of environmental privilege and immigrant discrimination within the Rocky Mountains' elite playground of Aspen, Colorado...their argument effectively extends well beyond Aspen's ski slopes and elite shopping streets.-M.M. Gunter Jr.,CHOICE

"Documents, observation, and interview material over a number of years combine to give a full picture of the situation...the book's rich background of Aspen and the whole state's history is nicely provided, and the interesting flow of history and people's everday lives make Slums of Aspen very accessible."-American Journal of Sociology,

"The authors...make a convincing and highly disturbing case about how some of the nation's most prominent promoters of sustainability depend on the labor of immigrants to enjoy privileged lives amidst a lovely environment."-In These Times,

"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

"A clear description of a troubling problem and an important contribution to debates on immigration policy."-Kirkus

Editorial Reviews

"Park and Pellow offer a blistering critique of environmental privilege and immigrant discrimination within the Rocky Mountains' elite playground of Aspen, Colorado...their argument effectively extends well beyond Aspen's ski slopes and elite shopping streets."

Choice - M.M. Gunter Jr.

"Documents, observation, and interview material over a number of years combine to give a full picture of the situation...the book's rich background of Aspen and the whole state's history is nicely provided, and the interesting flow of history and people's everday lives make Slums of Aspen very accessible."

American Journal of Sociology

"Its the perfect text to look at the intersection between social and environmental issues."

Aspen Public Radio - Marci Krivonen

"[Park and Pellow] provide an impactful account of a wealthy Colorado community's attempt to limit the number of immigrants in their neighborhoods and their reasoning for doing so: environmental protection."

The National Memo

"As Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Naguib Pellow make clear, we cant tackle todays environmental problems without simultaneously solving social ones. The Slums of Aspen is a must read for all of us who want not just a green and healthy economy, but also a fair and just one."

Annie Leonard

"Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class."

Ted Conover

"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."

Aspen Daily News - Andrew Travers

"The Slums of Aspentouches a wide variety of important topics both inside and outside the subdiscipline of environmental sociology. It takes long-lasting debates about population growth and examines them anew. It should be of interest to scholars in social movements, race, labor studies, political sociology, leisure studies, to name a few. Its main strength is that it engages so many different, and new areas, of environmental justice, and most importantly, provides a big step forward toward understanding the causes and consequences of environmental privilege, as well as the struggles by some to oppose its racially motivated 'green' politics."

Mobilization - Justin Farrell

Two academic activists peel back the surface of the idyllic resort town of Aspen, Colo., and find a not-so-pretty picture underneath.

Park (Sociology and Asian American Studies/Univ. of Minnesota) and Pellow (Sociology/Univ. of Minnesota) return to the subject of environmental injustice that they explored inThe Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy(2002). "We believe that the rarified, glorified notion of the Aspen idea often hides a whole mountain of ugly truths," they write, "both in the Rockies and in cities around the world." Using a wide range of sources—historical records, government documents, local newspapers and extensive interviews with town officers, school teachers, immigration-control officials, social-service providers and many Latino immigrant workers and their families—the authors study the paradox of social contempt for and economic dependence on immigrant labor, and they reveal its root causes and impacts. Park and Pellow examine the link between environmentalism and nativism—i.e., anti-immigration policy, asserting that it is "not just the ardent, vicious, right-wing political forces that support nativist environmentalism: it is often the liberal left-of-center folks who share these ideas as well." Indeed, they cite the Sierra Club as promoting the message that one of the major environmental problems is the reproductive behavior of women of color. Numerous quotes from immigrant workers reveal the indignities of their labor conditions, and excerpts from editorials and letters to the editor reveal the attitudes of white residents who resent their presence and blame them for a host of environmental and social problems. The authors also look at specific nonprofit organizations attempting to improve the lot of immigrant workers, and other organizations that oppose these attempts. In their conclusion, they call for an end to environmental racism and fresh thinking about the forms of privilege from which many of us benefit.

A clear description of a troubling problem and an important contribution to debates on immigration policy.

Kirkus Reviews

"As the limits to growth discourse gains currency, Park and Pellows groundbreaking book is a must-read. Tracing the nativism that has bedeviled the environmental movement for decades, they tell the fascinating story of eco-conscious, upscale Aspen, which was gripped by anti-immigrant fervor in the name of 'saving the planet.' A great addition for courses on environment, race, class, social activism and contemporary problems."

Juliet Schor

"The authors...make a convincing and highly disturbing case about how some of the nation's most prominent promoters of sustainability depend on the labor of immigrants to enjoy privileged lives amidst a lovely environment."

In These Times

"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

"The authors...make a convincing and highly disturbing case about how some of the nation's most prominent promoters of sustainability depend on the labor of immigrants to enjoy privileged lives amidst a lovely environment."- In These Times

"Documents, observation, and interview material over a number of years combine to give a full picture of the situation...the book's rich background of Aspen and the whole state's history is nicely provided, and the interesting flow of history and people's everday lives make Slums of Aspen very accessible."- American Journal of Sociology

“Two barrels of leftist buckshot, aimed at America's ruling class.” -Ted Conover,author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and Whiteout: Lost in Aspen

"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

"The Slums of Aspen touches a wide variety of important topics both inside and outside the subdiscipline of environmental sociology. It takes long-lasting debates about population growth and examines them anew. It should be of interest to scholars in social movements, race, labor studies, political sociology, leisure studies, to name a few. Its main strength is that it engages so many different, and new areas, of environmental justice, and most importantly, provides a big step forward toward understanding the causes and consequences of environmental privilege, as well as the struggles by some to oppose its racially motivated 'green' politics."-Justin Farrell, Mobilization

“As the limits to growth discourse gains currency, Park and Pellow’s groundbreaking book is a must-read. Tracing the nativism that has bedeviled the environmental movement for decades, they tell the fascinating story of eco-conscious, upscale Aspen, which was gripped by anti-immigrant fervor in the name of 'saving the planet.' A great addition for courses on environment, race, class, social activism and contemporary problems.”-Juliet Schor,Boston College, and author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need

From the Publisher