Veronica Herrera is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and
Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She
specializes in urban politics, environmental policy, and social
mobilization, and is the author of the award-winning book, Water
and Politics: Clientelism and Reform in Urban Mexico (University of
Michigan Press, 2017). Herrera has served as a Postdoctoral Fellow
with the Ford Foundation, the American
Association of University Women, the Institute for Citizens and
Scholars, and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American
Studies at Harvard. Her articles have been published in numerous
outlets such as Perspectives on Politics,
Comparative Politics, and World Development.
Based on in-depth research and rigorous comparison, this book
reveals policy processes that are often as slow and unseen as the
harms they seek to tackle. This fascinating study provides
important conceptual tools for understanding how networks and
social capital build commitments and connections, and how those, in
turn, help address pervasive environmental justice problems in
South American cities.
*Rebecca Neaera Abers, University of Brasilia*
Slow Harms and Citizen Action masterfully unravels the complex
dynamics of environmental policy reform in South America. Combining
ethnography and process tracing, Herrera brilliantly demonstrates
the power of grassroots activism in sparking transformative change.
This book is an essential read for scholars, policymakers, and
environmental advocates alike, offering invaluable insights into
the challenges and opportunities for crafting effective
environmental policies in Global South cities. A timely work that
will shape our understanding of environmental justice for years to
come.
*Isabella Alcañiz, University of Maryland*
This is an original and important book that draws attention to the
'slow harms' of pollution endured by urban populations around the
world, especially those already disadvantaged by their class, race,
or ethnicity. Herrera brings a compelling framework that emphasizes
how bridging activists can help communities understand these harms
that otherwise often go unrecognized and relates their chances of
success to longer histories of political violence. A must read for
anyone interested in the complex politics of environmental outcomes
in Latin America and beyond.
*Kathryn Hochstetler, London School of Economics and Political
Science*
In this pathbreaking study of river pollution on the poor fringes
of Bogotá, Lima, and Buenos Aires, Herrera shows how these
invisible and creeping harms and the marginalization of residents
act as obstacles to grassroots mobilization, and how broader human
rights activist networks shape institutional responses when these
obstacles are overcome. Drawing novel links between histories of
political violence and contemporary environmental mobilization,
Slow Harms and Citizen Action illuminates divergent trajectories of
contemporary urban politics in Latin America.
*Hillel Soifer, Temple University*
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