Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Abstract

I begin this paper with summaries of environment and development perspectives foundational to contemporary environmental sociology: ecological modernization theory and treadmill of production theory. Descriptions of the perspectives are provided as well as an overview of recent quantitative cross-national analyses that evaluate the propositions of both theories. Next, I provide a summary of ecologically unequal exchange theory. I argue that ecologically unequal exchange theory helps to address key limitations of both the treadmill of production and ecological modernization approaches, most notably their lack of attention paid to how structural and unequal relationships between nations influence environment and development associations. Next, I summarize bodies of empirical work within sociology that employ quantitative measurements and statistical modelling techniques to test the propositions of ecologically unequal exchange theory. I conclude by emphasizing the need for greater integration between ecologically unequal exchange theory, the two environment and development perspectives, and other political economy traditions. I also briefly discuss fruitful avenues for future research.

The Political Economy of the Water Footprint: A Cross-National Analysis of Ecologically Unequal Exchange

“…Through these unequal power relationships, developed countries are allowed to "carry out an 'environmental overdraft' that draws on the natural resources" of developing countries [39] (p. 330). While previous work in ecologically unequal exchange sees this as a zero-sum relationship (in which one set of countries benefits, while others lose out), more recent work sees ecologically unequal exchange as a set of asymmetrical power relationships, where more-developed countries "gain disproportionate advantages at the expense of", less-developed countries, due to the hierarchical structure of the world economy [26] (p. 6).…”

“…While previous research on the water footprint has investigated the virtual water trade, nations' consumption patterns, the economic efficiency of virtual water flows, etc., thus far, the water footprint has not been interrogated in relation to unequal trade relations [20][21][22][23][24][25]. Jorgenson [26] (p. 2) suggests that "international political economy perspectives [like ecologically unequal exchange]" has "much to offer for theoretically-engaged research on environment and development research. "…”

Introduction to Ecologically Unequal Exchange in Comparative Perspective

“…The metabolic rift perspective has led to the production of a stream of literature on the ecological crises induced by the national and global expansion of capitalism (Clark and Foster 2009; see the detailed bibliography on the metabolic rift at www.monthlyreview.org/commentary/metabolic-rift). This literature serves as a theoretical foundation for and meshes well with 'ecological footprint' studies pioneered by York et al (2003York et al ( , 2009; see also Jorgenson andClark 2009, 2012). Due to a combination of the data that is used and the relative acceptance of the ontological separation of humans from 'their' environment, these jwsr.org | DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2017.733 studies do not take on the ontological challenge of a dialectical understanding of socio-nature or "humans-in-nature.…”

“…They also advance our knowledge and perspectives on EUE in novel directions. We begin with Mark Noble's addition to this stream of literature that has come to be shaped by Andrew Jorgenson (2016aJorgenson ( , 2016b and his students and colleagues. He uses the case of cacao production and the adverse environmental consequences of jwsr.org | DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2017.733 unequal ecological exchange relations between core and peripheral countries.…”

“…Bunker introduced the idea of ecologically unequal exchange by building on earlier structural analyses of unequal economic exchange, including those by Latin American economists Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado within the UN Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the critical analyses of unequal economic exchange by Arghiri Emmanuel (1972) and Samir Amin (1976). Interest in ecologically unequal exchange has grown over the past decade as witnessed by the publication of several collections Hornborg and Martinez-Alier 2016) and important contributions by Foster and Holleman (2014), Hornborg (1998Hornborg ( , 2011Hornborg ( , 2015, and Jorgenson (2016aJorgenson ( , 2016b. We add to and extend this literature by including articles that explore various qualitative, quantitative, and evaluative dimensions of ecologically unequal exchange in the contemporary world-system.…”