‘Let Them Build Sea Walls’: Ecological Crisis, Economic Crisis and the Political Economic Opportunity Structure

Abstract

The notion of a political economic opportunity structure not only provides a sociological description of capitalism’s economic and ecological crises but also connects these crises to radical social and environmental movements, which must confront both political and economic institutions to bring about change. Until now, the theoretical foundation that the political economic opportunity structure (PEOS) uses to explain the perpetration of injustice has conditionally accepted ecological modernization theory and the classless notion of circularity described in risk theory. By constructively criticizing the theoretical foundation of the PEOS, this paper primarily emphasizes the class structure of the economic and ecological crises of capitalism as the context in which social and environmental movements exist.