Alf Hornborg

Global Ecology and Unequal Exchange (eBook, ePUB)

Fetishism in a Zero-Sum World

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In modern society, we tend to have faith in technology. But is our concept of 'technology' itself a cultural illusion? This book challenges the idea that humanity as a whole is united in a common development toward increasingly efficient technologies. Instead it argues that modern technology implies a kind of global 'zero-sum game' involving uneven resource flows, which make it possible for wealthier parts of global society to save time and space at the expense of humans and environments in the poorer parts.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 192
• Erscheinungstermin: 29. März 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781136658488
• Artikelnr.: 38272437

Autorenporträt

Alf Hornborg is Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University, Sweden.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction 1. Zero-Sum World: How to Think about Ecologically Unequal
Exchange 2. Fetishism, Dissociation, and the Cultural Analysis of
Capitalism 3. Historical Political Ecology: Progress as Environmental Load
Displacement 4. Toward a Truly Global Environmental History 5. The Unequal
Exchange of Time and Space 6. Value, Unequal Exchange, and Uneven
Development 7. Vital Signs: How Money Transforms Ecosystems 8. Possible
Moneys and Impossible Machines: To Intervene in the Logic of Capitalism

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Introduction 1. Zero-Sum World: How to Think about Ecologically Unequal Exchange 2. Fetishism, Dissociation, and the Cultural Analysis of Capitalism 3. Historical Political Ecology: Progress as Environmental Load Displacement 4. Toward a Truly Global Environmental History 5. The Unequal Exchange of Time and Space 6. Value, Unequal Exchange, and Uneven Development 7. Vital Signs: How Money Transforms Ecosystems 8. Possible Moneys and Impossible Machines: To Intervene in the Logic of Capitalism

Rezensionen

'Writing with clarity and analytical focus, Alf Hornborg takes on our most serious problems today: the degradation of the environment and the unequal distribution of wealth. Going beyond the usual stories about equal exchange, he shows how resources from labor to energy are unequally transferred across the globe to the detriment of the environment and equity: our narratives about the benefits of growth and efficiency hide the realities of human and material debasement. Drawing on anthropology, Hornborg persuasively argues that by distinguishing money's several purposes through issuing multiple currencies, and by adjusting our tax and subsidy policies, we may reduce our footprints and cope more sensibly'.

- Stephen Gudeman, University of Minnesota, USA

"We view technology as akin to magic, creating value from nothing. Blending culture and ecological economics, Alf Hornborg shows that technical development is actually a zero-sum game. Technology transfers assets between countries, producing wealth in some regions while imposing labor and environmental costs elsewhere. All the while, money makes material resources invisible. Civilization, concludes Hornborg, has been built on the displacement of environmental damage. This book should be read by all persons concerned with technology, development, and trade".

- Joseph Tainter, Utah State University, USA

This is a wonderful volume on world historical ecology [...] Ecological degradation and the race for natural resources has played a central role in human socio-cultural evolution for millennia and in the capitalist world-system for centuries. This book helps us to understand the human past and to devise a collectively rational future.

- Christopher Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside, USA