Hydronarratives: Water, Environmental Justice, and a Just Transition

The story of water in the United States is one of ecosystemic disruption and social injustice. From the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and Flint, Michigan, to the Appalachian coal and gas fields and the Gulf Coast, low-income communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color face the disproportionate effects of floods, droughts, sea level rise, and water contamination.

In Hydronarratives Matthew S. Henry examines cultural representations that imagine a just transition, a concept rooted in the U.S. labor and environmental justice movements to describe an alternative economic paradigm predicated on sustainability, economic and social equity, and climate resilience. Focused on regions of water insecurity, from central Arizona to central Appalachia, Henry explores how writers, artists, and activists have creatively responded to intensifying water crises in the United States and argues that narrative and storytelling are critical to environmental and social justice advocacy. By drawing on a wide and comprehensive range of narrative texts, historical documentation, policy papers, and literary and cultural scholarship, Henry presents a timely project that examines the social movement, just transition, and the logic of the Green New Deal, in addition to contemporary visions of environmental justice.

Author: Matthew S. Henry
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 01/01/2023
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.53d
ISBN13: 9781496233752
ISBN10: 1496233751
BISAC Categories:
- Nature | Natural Resources
- Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes | Nature
- Business & Economics | Real Estate | General

About the Author
Matthew S. Henry is an assistant instructional professor in the Honors College and an affiliate in the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming.