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Nation of Nations: Immigrant History as American History
The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America's Eden
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.
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.
284 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 11, 2011
While bookshelves can be filled with an increasing number of excellent studies of environmental racism (and other environmental injustices) in working-class communities of color, Park and Pellow author what may be the very first study of environmental privilege. They examine the town of Aspen, delighting in its hypocrisy, to reveal the ways that environmentally (and economically) privileged towns seek to protect their elite status by policing social borders. The "Aspen Logic" applies far beyond Aspen. Indeed, at its roots, the Aspen Logic is "capitalism with a green facelift" and an example of the "new racism" circulates today. As they explain, "When we privatize space and nature, we limit the kind of people who can enjoy it, and we limit our vision of the world in which we live. Capitalism, by its very nature, seeks to privatize everything with potential economic value."
When rich(white) Aspen residents accuse immigrants of polluting the environment, it is really code for an accusation of social contamination. These racism terms are coded green but really are about racist hate. Indeed, the very claims of environmental progress made by rich Aspenites ignores their quite large environmental footprint via their plentiful acts of conspicuous consumption. For example, how many immigrants would it take to match the carbon footprint of leaving one's huge uninhabited houses heated (included heated pools) year-long so that everything is prepared for the unannounced occasional visit? Moreover, Aspenites ignore the very dependence of their lifestyles on the invisible labors of immigrants. Finally, "The environmental and racial privileges on display in Aspen are also rooted in environmental injustices that occur elsewhere. That is, the market forces that give rise to the wealth controlled by Aspenites produce social and ecological violence in communities of color and working-class neighborhoods in other locations."
The book contains a nice chapter on nativism in the environmental movement that I wouldn't hesitate to incorporate into my classes. I do think perhaps this section of the book could do better to recognize the hard work of environmentalists in the Sierra Club who came out in force (and ran a strong grassroots campaign) to make sure the anti-immigrant ballot measures got defeated. Park and Pellow want to make the point that these ballot measures were not simply the result of a take-over of the Sierra Club by racists but that the nativist strands in U.S. environmental philosophy run deep. This is a point that should be made, but that shouldn't render unimportant the many other Sierra Club members who explicitly reject this type of thinking. Point of pride : Earth First! is repeatedly celebrated in this text for its progressive stance around immigration. This is named by Park and Pellow as one of the ways that EF! can be differentiated from mainstream white environmentalism.
Quotations to remember:
"We should note that ICE detention centers have become one of the fastest-growing segments of our national obsession with incarceration, with more than 65,000 immigrants being held against their will in private and public facilities in 2007. That same year, according to the Pew Research Center, Latinos became the largest ethnic/racial group in federal prisons, making up one-third o hte inmate population, despite comprising only 13 percent of the U.S. population. This increase was due largely to tougher enforcement of immigration laws."
"The West was, and remains, a site of imperialism for the U.S. government, corporations, and a largely European American population; it is a resource colony because it facilitates the continue domination of both people and nature .This process is made easier by more than a century of permissive federal legislation, which essentially handed over public lands and ecosystem resources to prospectors, miners, and companies of all stripes, both domestic and foreign."
"Outdoor recreation has become one of the most significant activities impact the ecological integrity of Western lands. Skiing in particular has damaged the West's ecology, despite its eco-friendly image.
When rich(white) Aspen residents accuse immigrants of polluting the environment, it is really code for an accusation of social contamination. These racism terms are coded green but really are about racist hate. Indeed, the very claims of environmental progress made by rich Aspenites ignores their quite large environmental footprint via their plentiful acts of conspicuous consumption. For example, how many immigrants would it take to match the carbon footprint of leaving one's huge uninhabited houses heated (included heated pools) year-long so that everything is prepared for the unannounced occasional visit? Moreover, Aspenites ignore the very dependence of their lifestyles on the invisible labors of immigrants. Finally, "The environmental and racial privileges on display in Aspen are also rooted in environmental injustices that occur elsewhere. That is, the market forces that give rise to the wealth controlled by Aspenites produce social and ecological violence in communities of color and working-class neighborhoods in other locations."
The book contains a nice chapter on nativism in the environmental movement that I wouldn't hesitate to incorporate into my classes. I do think perhaps this section of the book could do better to recognize the hard work of environmentalists in the Sierra Club who came out in force (and ran a strong grassroots campaign) to make sure the anti-immigrant ballot measures got defeated. Park and Pellow want to make the point that these ballot measures were not simply the result of a take-over of the Sierra Club by racists but that the nativist strands in U.S. environmental philosophy run deep. This is a point that should be made, but that shouldn't render unimportant the many other Sierra Club members who explicitly reject this type of thinking. Point of pride : Earth First! is repeatedly celebrated in this text for its progressive stance around immigration. This is named by Park and Pellow as one of the ways that EF! can be differentiated from mainstream white environmentalism.
Quotations to remember:
"We should note that ICE detention centers have become one of the fastest-growing segments of our national obsession with incarceration, with more than 65,000 immigrants being held against their will in private and public facilities in 2007. That same year, according to the Pew Research Center, Latinos became the largest ethnic/racial group in federal prisons, making up one-third o hte inmate population, despite comprising only 13 percent of the U.S. population. This increase was due largely to tougher enforcement of immigration laws."
"The West was, and remains, a site of imperialism for the U.S. government, corporations, and a largely European American population; it is a resource colony because it facilitates the continue domination of both people and nature .This process is made easier by more than a century of permissive federal legislation, which essentially handed over public lands and ecosystem resources to prospectors, miners, and companies of all stripes, both domestic and foreign."
"Outdoor recreation has become one of the most significant activities impact the ecological integrity of Western lands. Skiing in particular has damaged the West's ecology, despite its eco-friendly image.
June 16, 2016
Really interesting read. Aspen is pretty similar to Palo Alto in many ways- the wealth, the racial diversity that often is interchangeable with class, generally liberal public, environmentally conscious, yet completely addicted to new technology (comparable to outdoor heated driveways) while ignoring the very environmental and human rights issues associated with technology. An interesting look at population concern as environmental nativism as well as immigration attitudes. And frustrating and angering as well, because the truth hurts.
May 7, 2018
A very thought-provoking book on the combination of immigration and the environment. Both of which are hot topics in politics. I’ve known of environmental injustice for a few years now, but this book introduced me to the idea of environmental privilege. It opened my eyes to the fact that if one exists, so must the other. Definitely recommend the read.
August 3, 2016
Imperative read!!!!
This book was so compelling and informative. I could not put it down. I have recommended it to several people. I especially recommend to those who study environmental science & sustainability, social justice, and any social science.
This book was so compelling and informative. I could not put it down. I have recommended it to several people. I especially recommend to those who study environmental science & sustainability, social justice, and any social science.
June 9, 2012
I almost wish I hadn't read it and could keep my head in the sand and continue to enjoy Aspen the way I used to.
January 31, 2026
There are a number of compelling books emerging from the environmental/climate justice space right now, examining how inequality, labour, and ecological change intersect.
Coming back to The Slums of Aspen, a classic study of environmental privilege, reminded me of an enduring sociological insight: the necessity of "studying up.” Research often focuses on those who bear the greatest burdens of inequality, yet power does not only manifest where harm accumulates.
To understand how social hierarchies are produced and maintained, we need to examine the wealthy and the institutions, landscapes, and practices through which their advantages are stabilised.
Before reading the book, Aspen existed in my mind as nothing more than a playground for the elite. I knew little about its history and the policies that structured everyday life and underpin this image. Reading it in 2026 added an unexpected layer of presence as ICE raids are again affecting immigrant communities.
Park and Pellow frame their analysis around what they term the “Aspen logic,” a set of practices and assumptions that organises environmental governance and social life. Aspen is presented as pristine wilderness, an environment carefully maintained for appearance and experience rather than for the people whose labour makes it function. This logic, which extends far beyond Aspen itself, positions working-class communities of colour as environmental threats, despite the fact that they perform the majority of labor and care work necessary to sustain the carbon-intensive lifestyles of the town’s elite. Housekeeping, shopping, landscaping, childcare, and service work all remain largely invisible in the public imagination, while the wealthy cultivate an image of themselves as ecological citizens (or consumers).
The authors situate this contemporary logic within a longer historical framework. They trace it to Manifest Destiny and the broader ideology that natural wealth in the American West was a white entitlement, legally reinforced through statutes such as the 1872 Mining Act. These laws and practices codified the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and excluded populations considered undesirable, establishing a precedent for environmental protection as a mechanism of exclusion.
In Aspen, these historical patterns persist. "Growth-management" policies, open-space preservation initiatives, and opposition to affordable housing operate as contemporary instruments of exclusion. What was once enforced through violence and treaty now operates through zoning laws, property values, and regulatory practices that render migrant communities peripheral to the town’s official life.
The authors use extensive archival material as well as ethnography, conducting interviews with migrant workers. These narratives reveal how Aspen is a tightly managed social space. From here, symbolic displacement emerges.
This orchestration of space contributes to social fragmentation. Long commutes and irregular schedules erode collective life for workers, while the town is engineered to feel frictionless for the wealthy. As Park and Pellow write,
“Through the privatization of nature—which is what a ski resort is, after all—the mountain becomes a product to consume, a replicable commodity, even for the wealthy who come to ski. Aspen is an ‘experience.’ When we privatize space and nature, we limit the kind of people who can enjoy it, and we limit our vision of the world in which we live. Capitalism, by its very nature, seeks to privatise everything with potential economic value. Superficiality is the result. In such a context it is difficult to build relationships and community.”
The chapter on nativism was also illuminating. It shows how arguments about population and environmental degradation have been mobilised to blame immigrants rather than wealthy consumption, with organisations like the Sierra Club shaping public perception. Environmental protection rhetoric, in this context, functions to exclude immigrants from the same environmental privileges such as clean air, open spaces, and quality of life, that earlier European American settlers claimed for themselves.
In combining archival and ethnographic methods, the book demonstrates how privatisation reshapes social and spatial relations. It is also a critique of the care economy where dependency exists without any recognition. The apparent smoothness of Aspen is the product of deliberate social and spatial engineering, a sort of seamless environment for the wealthy that simultaneously generates exclusion, fragmentation, and social invisibility. The Slums of Aspen offers a compelling account of environmental privilege as a historically rooted phenomenon whose implications go far beyond Aspen.
Coming back to The Slums of Aspen, a classic study of environmental privilege, reminded me of an enduring sociological insight: the necessity of "studying up.” Research often focuses on those who bear the greatest burdens of inequality, yet power does not only manifest where harm accumulates.
To understand how social hierarchies are produced and maintained, we need to examine the wealthy and the institutions, landscapes, and practices through which their advantages are stabilised.
Before reading the book, Aspen existed in my mind as nothing more than a playground for the elite. I knew little about its history and the policies that structured everyday life and underpin this image. Reading it in 2026 added an unexpected layer of presence as ICE raids are again affecting immigrant communities.
Park and Pellow frame their analysis around what they term the “Aspen logic,” a set of practices and assumptions that organises environmental governance and social life. Aspen is presented as pristine wilderness, an environment carefully maintained for appearance and experience rather than for the people whose labour makes it function. This logic, which extends far beyond Aspen itself, positions working-class communities of colour as environmental threats, despite the fact that they perform the majority of labor and care work necessary to sustain the carbon-intensive lifestyles of the town’s elite. Housekeeping, shopping, landscaping, childcare, and service work all remain largely invisible in the public imagination, while the wealthy cultivate an image of themselves as ecological citizens (or consumers).
The authors situate this contemporary logic within a longer historical framework. They trace it to Manifest Destiny and the broader ideology that natural wealth in the American West was a white entitlement, legally reinforced through statutes such as the 1872 Mining Act. These laws and practices codified the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and excluded populations considered undesirable, establishing a precedent for environmental protection as a mechanism of exclusion.
In Aspen, these historical patterns persist. "Growth-management" policies, open-space preservation initiatives, and opposition to affordable housing operate as contemporary instruments of exclusion. What was once enforced through violence and treaty now operates through zoning laws, property values, and regulatory practices that render migrant communities peripheral to the town’s official life.
The authors use extensive archival material as well as ethnography, conducting interviews with migrant workers. These narratives reveal how Aspen is a tightly managed social space. From here, symbolic displacement emerges.
This orchestration of space contributes to social fragmentation. Long commutes and irregular schedules erode collective life for workers, while the town is engineered to feel frictionless for the wealthy. As Park and Pellow write,
“Through the privatization of nature—which is what a ski resort is, after all—the mountain becomes a product to consume, a replicable commodity, even for the wealthy who come to ski. Aspen is an ‘experience.’ When we privatize space and nature, we limit the kind of people who can enjoy it, and we limit our vision of the world in which we live. Capitalism, by its very nature, seeks to privatise everything with potential economic value. Superficiality is the result. In such a context it is difficult to build relationships and community.”
The chapter on nativism was also illuminating. It shows how arguments about population and environmental degradation have been mobilised to blame immigrants rather than wealthy consumption, with organisations like the Sierra Club shaping public perception. Environmental protection rhetoric, in this context, functions to exclude immigrants from the same environmental privileges such as clean air, open spaces, and quality of life, that earlier European American settlers claimed for themselves.
In combining archival and ethnographic methods, the book demonstrates how privatisation reshapes social and spatial relations. It is also a critique of the care economy where dependency exists without any recognition. The apparent smoothness of Aspen is the product of deliberate social and spatial engineering, a sort of seamless environment for the wealthy that simultaneously generates exclusion, fragmentation, and social invisibility. The Slums of Aspen offers a compelling account of environmental privilege as a historically rooted phenomenon whose implications go far beyond Aspen.
February 6, 2025
As far as informational non fiction goes, I really enjoyed this book. I think because I am so familiar with the area but removed enough that I don’t know all of the history I thought this was so interesting. I’ve known all of these things to exist in the world and I knew there were problems with racism, nativism, and environmental justice but sometimes it can be hard to conceptualize it in your own life. This book made it a bit easier because this is happening in my neighboring county which means some of these sentiments definitely exist in my home. This book is making me feel inspired to get more involved with my community movements to help protect immigrants and to help build a community that protect people and planet. I will read this book again and I would definitely recommend to others.
March 24, 2026
This book felt dated. This read more like a college research paper than a book. I agree with the points of the authors, but they are trying to reinforce a thesis throughout the book which for me, took away some of the persuasive factor. It very much exposes how much american society and politics have changed in the last 15 years, and truthfully, i can see how politics have shifted so far to the right in reading this book. It seemed the authors were more intent on labeling everyone as racist than they were digging into numbers and facts, and despite agreeing, I did not find their communication very effective. All of their points could have been made in much less words.
March 31, 2024
Everyone who likes to take ski vacations needs to read this book.
December 6, 2024
Living in Summit County this was all relatable and so important. This topic needs more conversation.
May 19, 2026
Changed my perspective on ski resorts…
December 31, 2014
Thanks for shedding some reality on my former home. It needed to be said Lisa.
November 12, 2015
Great book for insight into environmental racism.
April 22, 2016
I love how they studied up.
December 22, 2017
It's a great resource that puts on display the hypocrisy of the environmentalist movement in Aspen, Colorado. It illustrates environmental racism and nativism well.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews