Ecological Imperialism: A World‐Systems Approach

Abstract

This article explores the complex relationships between global ecological crises and ecological imperialism through world‐systems analysis. In a hierarchical capitalist world system, neoliberal globalization has granted global capital seemingly unfettered exploitation of nature across the planet. For the impoverished and marginalized in the Global South, this globalization is experienced as a form of contemporary ecological imperialism where the resources of the Global South are funneled to nation‐states in the Global North in the form of consumer goods and “ecologically unequal exchange,” while profits are siphoned off by transnational corporations. This ecological imperialism persists, but it is largely overlooked in current debates about environmentalism in the 21st century.

Integrating Degrowth and World-Systems Theory: Toward a Research Agenda

“…As I have explored more extensively elsewhere, the ultimate consequence is a capitalist world-system undergirded by ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt, where both resources and profits flow to core areas of affluence. In the contemporary iteration of the capitalist world-system, neoliberal globalization and neoliberal development policies are important reinforcing mechanisms of imperialism (Frame 2022a(Frame , 2022b.…”