Alf Hornborg
Professor emeritus
Fair Enough? : Ecologically Unequal Exchange, International Trade, and Environmental Justice
Author
Summary, in English
EUE theory remains marginalized in relation to mainstream economic doctrine. To enhance its utilization, the core tenets or claims of EUE theory are synthesized and translated into policy assessment criteria. The key claims are discussed in terms of i)Structure of the capitalist world-economy, ii) Valuation languages, and iii) Equity and justice. The treadmill logic of capitalism in which capital extracts ecological resources and releases waste in an endless pursuit of profits creates an expansionary dynamic which draws peripheral countries into exploitative market relations. This peripheralization is actively supported by ‘free-trade’ economic theories presented as win-win policies, while states and international politico-economic institutions such as the WTO and WorldBank provide the regulations which ensure the proper functioning of the system. Monetary valuation caps it all by obscuring the inverse relationship between thermodynamics and economics in which raw (low entropy) materials are lowly priced while processed goods which have dissipated most of their matter-energy (and thus represent high entropy) are highly priced, ensuring that surplus value and resources accumulates in industrialized countries.
The dominant economic conception of the world system is being challenged by a “cultural” perspective which offers a postcolonial critique of the cultural hegemony of the Global North, beyond political economy. I apply this analytic shift to argue that EUE can also be conceived as a social process of Othering. Our understandings of economy and the environment reflect past experiences,present preoccupations, socio-cultural assumptions, and specific discursive practices – a Political Unconscious. Global environmental politics cannot be understood without considering such assumptions. Conventional hegemonic discourses of neoliberalism and ecomodernism suffer from such a political unconscious. Borrowing perspectives from postcolonial, feminist, and critical social theories, I discuss how Western science exhibit such a political unconscious and their significance for EUE. Ultimately, EUE is a political problem which can only be solved politically.
Department/s
- Human Ecology
Publishing year
2016-04-21
Language
English
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Lund University
Topic
- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Keywords
- Capitalism
- ecologically unequal exchange
- environmental justice
- ecomodernism
- Global South
- Global North
- international trade
- LCA
- neoliberalism
- political ecology
- postcolonial
- socio-metabolism
- sustainability
- science
- world-system
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Alf Hornborg
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-7623-752-6
- ISBN: 978-91-7623-751-9
Defence date
3 June 2016
Defence time
10:00
Defence place
M138, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 14, Lund
Opponent
- Joan Martinez-Alier (Professor)