Abstract
Humanity’s present social–ecological metabolic configuration is not sustainable, and the need for a radical transformation of society to address its metabolic rifts with the rest of nature is increasingly apparent. The work of French Marxist Henri Lefebvre, one of the few thinkers to recognize the significance of Karl Marx’s theory of metabolic rift prior to its rediscovery at the end of the twentieth century, offers valuable insight into contemporary issues of sustainability. His concepts of the urban revolution, autogestion, the critique of everyday life, and total (or metabolic) revolution all relate directly to the key concerns of sustainability. Lefebvre’s work embodies a vision of radical social–ecological transformation aimed at sustainable human development, in which the human metabolic interchange with the rest of nature is to be placed under substantively rational and cooperative control by all its members, enriching everyday life. Other critical aspects of Lefebvre’s work, such as his famous concept of the production of space, his temporal rhythmanalysis, and his notion of the right to the city, all point to the existence of an open-ended research program directed at the core issues of sustainability in the twenty-first century.
Highlights
Sustainability, like its predecessor “sustainable development”, is a highly contested concept in its meanings, its objectives, and the means of change. It refers to a vital aspect of our social–ecological metabolism, and a general consensus exists that, whatever the meaning of sustainability is, our current social–ecological metabolic configuration is not consistent with it [1]
For many born since the late 1970s, capital seems less like Joseph Schumpeter’s [3] (p. 84) “perennial gale of creative destruction” and more like an unrelenting force of ever-more rampant destruction and enervating stagnation
Its form assumes a minimalist and generally technocratic set of market adjustments and limited policy incentives. This mechanistic approach is often supported by proponents of ecological modernization and neoliberalism, as it assumes that the requisites for the reproduction of nature can be wholly dominated by the established, if alienated, society
Summary
Sustainability, like its predecessor “sustainable development”, is a highly contested concept in its meanings, its objectives, and the means of change. At various points between these poles are those who believe that social–ecological systems can be somehow split apart, and either their social or their ecological aspects addressed independently—perhaps in concert, or with one side of the split taking priority over the other (as in the ongoing but unhelpful arguments over “anthropocentric” versus “ecocentric” conservation [7,8]) Such one-sided, even if supposedly totalizing, understandings of sustainability are a large part of the reason that the concept is so ambiguous, contested, and often abused by vested interests. Contrary to some popular interpretations of Marxism, such a revolutionary vision does not entail postponing social transformation pending a revolution that will automatically bring about the necessary social–ecological metabolic changes Instead, it offers an understanding of revolution as a process whose transformation must be currently pursued even while building momentum for deeper change, which can bring about the conditions under which a less antagonistic social–metabolic order can be implemented. A key aspect of what Lefebvre offers is a deeper insight into the social–ecological barriers to and conditions of metabolic restoration upon which the process of sustainability must be premised
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