Is capitalism sustainable?: political economy and the politics of ecology

Abstract

This volume probes the many facets of capitalism's ecological contradictions and presents critical discussions of the politics of ecology under a free-market economy. Offering cogent analyses of the ways capitalism and liberal politics themselves are responding to this crisis, the book also presents the groundwork for meaningful social resistance to capitalist exploitations. Essays in this volume--contributed by leading scholars including Juan Martinez-Alier, Jean-Paul Del?age, Elmar Altvatar, Frank Beckenbach, Ariel Salleh, James O'Connor, John S. Dryzek, Margaret FitzSimmons, Colin Hay, Michael Gismondi, Mary Richardson, and Alex Demirovic--address two broad questions. First, is an ecologically sustainable capitalism possible? Second, is it possible for capitalism to be reformed to respect the integrity of social and ecological domains? In addressing these questions, the first half of the book appraises the ecological and economic contradictions of capital. Thought-provoking chapters discuss theoretical aspects of the relationship between capitalism and nature, such as whether the capitalist system is consistent with ecological sustainability; and which social and economic interests are served and which are forcibly suppressed in a market economy. Contributions drawing on critical perspectives in political economy, ecological economics, eco-feminism, and social history of science, place the industrial exploitation of wage labor within the larger context of the external domains of biophysical nature, human nature, and social infrastructures, upon which capitalist accumulation depends. The second half of the book focuses on the political institutions of liberal democracies and both their potential and limitations as vehicles for effective resolution of capitalism's ecological contradictions. Chapters examine the effectiveness of such liberal democratic actions as policy measures for clean air, worker's health, hazardous waste control, protection for endangered species, and international treaties and agreements. They also explore whether more radical democratic principles could furnish an adequate basis for responding to the social and economic dimensions of our ecological crises. The book is a sobering and timely antidote to the current rash of publications touting a successful marriage of market society to the goals of environmental quality and social justice.