Towards an ecological theory of unequal exchange: articulating world system theory and ecological economics

Hornborg, Alf

doi:10.1016/s0921-8009(97)00100-6

Cited by 371 publications

(214 citation statements)

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“…I suggest that international political economy perspectives have much to offer for theoretically-engaged research on environment and development research. And many other scholars have made similar arguments over the past few decades [9][10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Jorgenson

2016

Sustainability

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Jorgenson

2016

Sustainability

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“…The expansion towards its physical representation, i.e. ecologically unequal exchange, has been discussed in depth by Joan Martinez-Alier (1987, Alf Hornborg (1998Hornborg ( , 2007Hornborg ( , 2010Hornborg ( , 2012 and Stephen G. Bunker (1985). The concept suggests that poorer world regions (here denoted as 'non-core' countries) generally provide resource-intensive, primary goods that are also labor-intensive, involving low-skilled labor, characterized by high homogeneity and thus exposed to high international competition and, as an effect, only generate low economic income.…”

Section: Journal Of Political Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

South America's biophysical involvement in international trade: the physical trade balances of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil in the light of ecologically unequal exchange

Dorninger

Eisenmenger²

2016

Journal of Political Ecology

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International trade is becoming increasingly important in the strategies of industrialized economies ('core' countries) to meet their physical needs and maintain their social metabolism. Less industrialized ('non-core') countries, in particular those with low population densities such as countries in South America, provide a large share of the natural resources currently being used by the 'core' countries. This article analyzes the relations of biophysical exchange of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil with global 'core' and 'non-core' countries in order to add to a discussion of possible relations of different national economic policies, such as import substituting industrialization or neoliberal adjustment, on the countries' physical trade balances (PTBs). By that we will provide a biophysical reading of ecologically unequal exchange; by investigating whether there is a physical net trade flow from 'non-core' to 'core' countries, whether primary products dominate exports of 'non-core' countries in exchange for processed products from 'core' countries, and whether the notion of unfavorable mass-to-price relation for the trading 'non-core' countries applies (Hornborg 2012;Martinez-Alier 2007). The magnitudes, type of material, stage of processing and monetary value of the traded goods are analyzed for the time period from 1962 to 2011. The evaluations have been carried out for trade relations with the 'core' and the 'non-core' countries separately. Additionally, in order to trace the so-called China Effect, which led to the period of new extractivism, the quantities exported to China are shown separately. The results indicate that the three countries examined are net exporters of physical quantities. The physical involvement in 'core'-and 'non-core'-related international trade differs greatly, but at the same time the relative importance of the 'core' as trading partner has decreased steadily over the five decades. Still, 'core'-related trade involves the most unfavorable mass-to-price relation. These conditions, i.e. high importance of unprocessed export commodities, low average unit prices, and an unfavorable monetary trade balance (MTB), reveal many characteristics of an ecologically unequal exchange. This is especially true for Argentina and Brazil. Due to its lower economic performance and limited involvement in international trade, Bolivia to some extent represents an exception. Keywords: Ecologically unequal exchange, physical trade balance, South America, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil. RésuméLe commerce international devient de plus en plus important pour les économies industrialisées afin de satisfaire leurs besoins matériels et maintenir leur fonctionnement social. Les pays en voie de développement, en particulier ceux qui présentent une faible densité de population comme l'Amérique du Sud, fournissent une 1 Christian Dorninger, PhD candidate, Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. E-mail: christian.dorninger "at" leuphana.de. This article is based on his Masters thesis i...

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“…As high quality energy enters a system, it pushes the system away from equilibrium (Kay et al 1999). In response, the system builds new internal structures that make use of the energy by dissipating it (Abel and Stepp 2003, Hornborg 1998, Kay et al 1999, Kay and Schneider 1994. Hence, open systems export entropy in order to maintain internal negentropy, or order (Naveh 2000).…”

Section: Systems Theories: Abstract Conceptualizations Of Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems Thinking in the Forest Service: a Framework to Guide Practical Application for Social-Ecological Management in the Enterprise Program

Kmon¹

2000

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The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Enterprise Program (EP), which provides fee-forservice consulting services to the USFS, is interested in integrating systems thinking into its service offerings. Despite there being several excellent sources on the range and diversity of systems thinking, no single framework exists that thoroughly yet concisely outlines what systems thinking is along with its deep history, theoretical tenets, and soft and hard approaches. This thesis is an attempt to create such a framework, aimed specifically at practical application in a land management agency, through literature synthesis injected with original analysis. The usefulness of the framework is then tested using three case studies within the EP and the agency as a whole.The framework highlights several important aspects of systems thinking, both generally and related specifically to social-ecological management. First, systems thinking is the transdisciplinary study of complex phenomena from a holistic, rather than reductionist, perspective. The world can be viewed as a massive set of embedded systems -elements with relations that lead to nonlinear behavior -making the role of the observer essential in identifying scales of interest and interactions amongst them. Second, the deep history of holistic thinking suggests that its modern scientific study could benefit from exploring the East's long-standing cultural and spiritual approaches to holism through cognitive unity and oneness with mankind and nature. Third, categorizations of systems approaches as "soft" versus "hard" are helpful but can distract us from the ultimate goal of systems thinking, which is to understand the various tools in the systems thinking toolbox so as to apply them critically and creatively to make a meaningful difference in the world. Fourth, I see the soft systems approaches as having a distinct systems thinking orientation and the hard systems ii approaches as overlapping substantially with operations research, the close cousin of systems thinking. Fifth, I identify a spectrum of complexity, contending that systems thinking tends to be concerned with what I call subjectively and computationally complex systems, as well as complex adaptive systems, leaving simple systems for other approaches. Finally, I contend that it is the soft systems approaches and the two theoretical pillars of hierarchy theory and cooperation theory that will aid wicked social-ecological problem solving the most.The framework is applied to three case studies. Examination of the EP reorganization using a hard systems approach revealed two critical high-level functions that were absent in the current structure, paving the way for new designs that could take those functions into account. Analysis of an initiative to increase citizen recreation on USFS lands showed that a systems approach had been improperly applied and how the application of a soft approach at the onset could have systematically framed the problem and offered unique normative insights for giving voice to relevant ...

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Towards an ecological theory of unequal exchange: articulating world system theory and ecological economics

Cited by 371 publications

References 10 publications

Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange

South America's biophysical involvement in international trade: the physical trade balances of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil in the light of ecologically unequal exchange

Systems Thinking in the Forest Service: a Framework to Guide Practical Application for Social-Ecological Management in the Enterprise Program

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