Ecologically unequal exchange : environmental injustice in comparative and historical perspective /: environmental injustice in comparative and historical perspective. (2018)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Edited by R. Scott Frey, Paul K. Gellert, Harry F. Dahms.
• Editors: Frey, Richard Scott; Gellert, Paul K; Dahms, Harry F
• Contents: PREFACE: R. Scott Frey, Paul K. Gellert, and Harry F. DahmsPART I: Theoretical Foundations of Ecologically Unequal Exchange1. Paul Ciccantell, Sociology, Western Michigan University, 'Ecological Unequal Exchange and RawMaterialism: The Material Foundations of the Capitalist World-Economy'The ecological unequal exchange literature analyzes one of the most important pillars of globalinequality: the extraction of raw materials from and imposition of environmental damages onperipheral regions, populations and ecosystems in the capitalist world-economy for the benefit of thewealthy and powerful. This literature fills a glaring hole in world-systems analysis in the 1970s and1980s: the lack of attention to the role of and consequences for the natural environment in long termsocioeconomic change. This analytic tradition examined commodity chains from their sources throughto consumption and waste disposal and often employed sophisticated quantitative analytic techniquesto test theoretical models of the causes and consequences of ecological unequal exchange over timeand around the world.In this paper, I seek to bring the ecological unequal exchange literature into dialogue with anotherworld-systems theoretical model that integrates global and local natural and social processes overthe long term, new historical materialism or, to put it more bluntly, raw materialism. This theoreticalmodel focuses attention on the raw materials-based industries and linked transport systems that areused to solve the most fundamental challenge to rapid economic growth: how to acquire growingvolumes of raw materials at lower costs and in greater and more secure volumes than othercompeting economies. One key part of this process of change is how historically many risingeconomies utilize raw materials access strategies that focus on stealing raw materials peripheriesfrom established hegemons, since the high costs and huge economic political challenges of creatingraw materials supply systems have already been paid by the existing hegemon.The raw materials boom of the 2000s and first half of the 2010s based on China's rapid economicascent led many firms, politicians and analysts to see a new "golden age" in which raw materialswealth could serve as the basis for development around the world by tying extractive peripheries tothe Chinese market, a world in which the concept of unequal exchange seemed incredibly outdated.The dramatic decline in raw materials prices in 2014-15 because of the economic slowdown in Chinais rapidly transforming this golden era into widespread busts for firms and extraction regions. Thishistorical juncture creates an opportunity for a more robust analysis integrating the insights ofecological unequal exchange and raw materialism to understand the multidimensional causes andconsequences of global inequalities.2. Mariko Frame, Environmental Studies, University of Utah, 'Ecologically Unequal Exchange andEcological Imperialism: Conceptualizing their Relation and Distinction'In the literature on ecologically unequal exchange and ecological imperialism, the role of thesemiperiphery has been underexplored and ill-defined. Yet the increasing saturation of industrialcapitalism throughout the emerging economies, combined with global ecological crises, hasintensified their material and energy demands. This article seeks to contribute to a conceptualizationof the role of the semiperiphery in the global ecology from the framework of ecologically unequalexchange, and relatedly, ecological imperialism, specifically in its relation to the periphery. The largescale foreign investment in Cambodia's land sector, which has been largely driven by investors fromEast Asia, is examined as a case study.3. Paul K. Gellert, Sociology, University of Tennessee, "Bunker's Ecologically Unequal Exchange, Foster's Metabolic Rift and Moore's World-Ecology: Distinctions with or without a Difference?"Three major works stand out among efforts by sociologists to understand, research and theorize thedialectical interpenetration of 'nature' and 'society' and the ways in which such 'socionatures' areshaped by capitalism. Stephen G. Bunker (1984) introduced 'ecologically unequal exchange' inUnderdeveloping the Amazon. John B. Foster (2000) uncovered and expanded the concept of'metabolic rift' in Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature. Finally, Jason W. Moore (2015) hasrecently added his critique of neo-Cartesian ontologies and offered 'world-ecology' in Capitalism inthe Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. All three sociologists address the unjustmanner in which dominant actors in the capitalist world-system simultaneously exploit labor and nonhumannature while undermining sustainability or what James O'Connor (1988) called the 'conditionsof production' in a fourth major contribution on the 'second contradiction of capitalism.' In this paper, Iexplore whether and to what extant their approaches offer distinct ontologies, methodologies, research programs and agendas for praxis.4. Shellen Wu, History, University of Tennessee, "History Matters: Contingency in the Creation ofEcologically Unequal Exchange"Social scientists have modeled ecologically unequal exchange using data sets, material flow charts, and regression analysis. A close examination of the data, however, also suggests flawed collectionmethods and historically contingent paths of development. This paper specifically examines issues ofimperialism and environmental history in China, suggesting some ways in which the historicalapproach could temper sociological theories of unequal exchange.PART II: Cases of Ecologically Unequal Exchange5. Kirk Lawrence, Sociology, St. Joseph's College and Jason W. Moore, Fernand Braudel Center andSociology, Binghamton University, "Exploring the Causes of Unequal Ecological Exchange: The Caseof Energy" (abstract pending)6. Laura McKinney, Sociology, Tulane University, 'The Entropy Curse'The natural resource curse hypothesis—as treated by diverse disciplines including economics, political science, and sociology, among others—is a widely adhered to explanation of developmentdifferentials witnessed the world over. Specifically, the hypothesis asserts that resource-abundantnations evidence poor performance on diverse indicators of development, though the bulk of theempirical focus centers on measures of economic growth. This body of work is often invoked toaccount for the relatively low levels of development observed in peripheral nations that arecharacteristically rural and resource rich. The purpose of this research is to critique the naturalresource curse literature on the following conceptual and analytic grounds: 1) an essential lack ofunderstanding of the ways in which all socioeconomic progress depends on environmental inputs; 2)fundamental flaws in the empirical bases upon which the hypothesis is purported to find support; and3) the theoretical implications of key 'resource curse' findings that strongly support the theoreticalpredictions of global political economy perspectives in environmental sociology, particular those in theecological unequal exchange tradition. The paper draws on physical science and thermodynamicprinciples to substantiate further the central claim that it is the liquidation of resources—not resourceabundance per se—that stunts economic growth in the periphery. Moreover, the structure of theworld-system and ecological unequal exchanges therein fuel the liquidation of resources that stuntsdevelopment in less-developed nations. The theory and empirics presented support that ecologicalunequal exchanges and associated environmental losses in poor nations are driving unequaldevelopment. Thus, ecological unequal exchange is a root cause of global inequality, includingdifferentials in economic development. The paper concludes that the natural resource curse literatureand related perspectives that seek to explain patterns of underdevelopment in peripheral areas wouldbenefit greatly from the incorporation of an interdisciplinary perspective that includes physical(thermodynamic) principles and explicit attention to the unequal nature of ecological exchanges theworld over. A wide range of theoretical and empirical conclusions and implications are discussed aswell as directions for future research.7. Brett Clark, Sociology, University of Utah and Stefano B. Longo, Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, 'Ecological Unequal Exchange in Global Marine Systems'The majority of the world's fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted. Natural scientistshave determined that fisheries and their associated ecosystems are being threatened on a scaleunparalleled in human history. These changing conditions are broadly a consequence of the globalcapitalist system and the commodification of seafood. The growth imperative and the structure of theworld economy influences fishing practices, the organization of labor, the use of fish, and the trade ofthis commodity. At the same time, global marine systems are marked by unequal material-ecologicalexchanges that perpetuate inequalities and uneven environmental impacts, which disproportionatelyharm the environment and well-being of populations in the South. We highlight the ecological unequalexchange that is associated with marine systems, such as is the case with European companiesbuying fishing access in the exclusive economic zones of African nations, the export-orientedproduction of shrimp in the South, the use of slave labor in Southeast Asia to capture fish to be usedas pet and livestock feed, and the link between the general expansion of aquaculture operations toproduce high-end foods for the global North and the overall increase in the production of fishmeal andfish oil, which has particular social and ecological consequences in the South.8. R. Scott Frey, Sociology, University of Tennessee, 'The Globalization of Health and EnvironmentalRisks through the Transfer of Cor
• Publisher Details: Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication Date: 2018
• Extent: 1 online resource, illustrations (black and white, and colour)
• Subjects: 363.7; Environmental justice
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9783319897400
• Related ISBNs: 9783319897394
• Notes: Note: Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed.
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