Political Economy PDF

Ch 7: Political Economy Source: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock Political Economy • The Strange Logic of “Under-pollution” • Labor, Accumulation, and Crisis • Production of Nature • Global Capitalism and the Ecology of Uneven Development • Social Reproduction and Nature • Environments and Economism ...

Ch 7: Political Economy Source: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock Political Economy • The Strange Logic of “Under-pollution” • Labor, Accumulation, and Crisis • Production of Nature • Global Capitalism and the Ecology of Uneven Development • Social Reproduction and Nature • Environments and Economism The Strange Logic of “Under-pollution” • Markets are used to distribute pollution more efficiently, based on arguments that places are “under-polluted” • Market-oriented distribution focused on efficiency often leads to less equitable exposure of different social and economic groups • We justify polluting people who are paid less more • We justify sending waste to poorer countries • What kind of relationship to nature is necessary for this kind of logic to make any sense? What kind of social organization explains this? • Use a political economy lens to view Capitalism as an explanation Political Economy Approach In general: • notes the ways in which control of money and power exists/is distributed within a society, institutionally, privately, individually socially according to the political/economic order. • Uses an understanding of this political/economic structure to explain any particular social reality within the system. • ‘Problems’ arise as a result of the system • A political economy approach then will argue that it is the structure of the economy and power relations within it that create environmental problems and our perception of them. • Political Economy approaches are predicated on the work of Karl Marx, and like he did, they focus on the structures of Capitalism as a political/economic order • Capitalism explains environmental problems and our perceptions of them • Today we will spend time most of our time looking at the structure of capitalism using a Marxist lens Marx Original Theories • Theoretical position stems from his Historical Materialism: • Societies inevitably progress in a predictable manner from hunter-gathers through slavery, feudal, capitalist, socialist and finally communist stages • Each stage except the last contains the seeds of its own destruction • Because in each except the last there is inequality • Its functioning thus leads to conflict and ‘crises’ that will eventually lead to breakdown and movement into the next stage 5 Marx Original Theories • Stages are distinguished from one another by their mode of production • How and by whom resources are controlled, created and distributed • Each subsequent stage of society has a unique mode of production 6 Marx Original Theories • Mode of production is made of two basic parts: • Forces of Production made up of: • Means of production • things required to make commodities • e.g., factories, machinery • Conditions of production • raw materials needed to produce commodities • e.g., wood, oil, iron • Relations of Production • The social structures that exist that defines • who has access to/control over the forces of production • who produces commodities and under what conditions etc. 7 Marx Original Theories • Commodities • are things that have value • Thus could be exchanged, bought/sold etc • Are made by altering the natural world through human action • Though labour 8 Marx Original Theories • In Capitalist systems specifically: • Only some people own/control the means and conditions of production and most people own only their own labour 9 Marx Original Theories • In Capitalist systems specifically: • Labourers work for wages by creating commodities then buy commodities with their wages 10 Marx Original Theories • In Capitalist systems specifically: • Bourgeois (owners/capitalists) get all of the surplus value of commodities • the difference between the cost of production and the paid price • It is in their best interest to create the biggest surplus possible • Shareholders increase this pressure • This causes increases in social inequality • Accumulation • The condensation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands 11 Marx Original Theories • Where does accumulation and surplus value come from? • If workers (labourers) directly controlled the means and the conditions of production • there would be no need for a surplus value • Goods could be sold at their exchange value, which means that they are exchanged directly for the value of means, conditions, and labour put into it. • the persons involved in the transaction would be the workers • Barter systems are like this • So accumulation requires first rending control of the means and conditions of production from workers Marx Original Theories The beginnings of modern capitalism really get going at the beginning of the industrial revolution: • Primitive accumulation – the enclosure and privatization of previously communal resources • Example: the Enclosure Laws in England • Communal lands privatized mostly for wool production and processing • People lost access to the conditions of production and had to start selling their labour to capitalists to survive Marx Original Theories The beginnings of modern capitalism get going at the beginning of the industrial revolution: • Capitalist accumulation • Once the means and conditions of production are private, accumulation occurs through maximizing surplus value • Done through ‘underpayment’ • Pay less for labour (pay workers less) • Pay less for the conditions of production (pay less to exploit the environment for resources to turn into commodities • Underpayment is a natural consequence of capitalism • Creates specific crises • What are known as the First and Second contradictions of capitalism Marx Original Theories • The first contradiction of capitalism • capitalism undermines itself through: • Overaccumulation • wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few • Who are able to produce more and more commodities • Yet many people cannot afford to buy commodities and keep the system expanding • Creates both Overproduction and Underconsumption • goods are not purchased as quickly as they are produced • Economic crisis ensues Marx Original Theories • The second contradiction of capitalism • capitalism undermines itself • by undervaluing the environmental conditions necessary for its own propagation through: • Environmental degradation that harms the conditions of production and worker health • Overextraction of resources – produces scarcity that limits growth • IOW Capitalism tends to undervalue (or un-value) the natural resources used to create commodities so it over uses them and tends to create significant natural destruction in the process • The system itself is encouraged not to value system inputs, leading to fewer and lower quality inputs later, including human inputs Fig. 7.2: Contradiction and crisis Source: Adapted from O'Connor (1988) Production of nature • Two contradictory arguments that support environmental exploitation in Capitalism: • Nature is seen as external to society, something that can be commodified for human use. • Exploitation of the environment is part of the commodification process • Humans are part of nature and subject to natural laws, so human society and economic processes are natural and inevitable • Commodification of the environment and exploitation of nature is a part of Nature Production of nature • The production of nature thesis argues that: • Nature is always altered by human activities • We must take care not to see ourselves outside of it • We must be critical of attempts to use markets to solve environmental problems • Yet we must also take care not to think of our behavior as inevitable just because its part of nature • We must be critical of activities that treat the environment as external to politics and the economy because the underlying causes of degradation will be ignored Global capitalism and the ecology of uneven development • After local options are exhausted • After we have exhausted the environment (or can’t anymore) • After we have reached the bottom of what we are able to pay labourers to produce goods • The crises of capitalism can be put off using the spatial fix • moving the processes of production or consumption to a new location • Moving processes of resource extraction when the resource has been depleted • Moving a factory to a location with cheaper labor or less strict environmental standards • Moving products to sell in new markets Global capitalism and the ecology of uneven development • The spatial fix allows capitalism to continue functioning in the shorter term, but contributes to increased inequality between places and people • Globalization is part of the spatial fix • Development within capitalism is always uneven by its nature • Given the size of the global population and the extent of capitalisms’ exploitative reach • the stakes, the problems of capitalism are getting bigger and further reaching over time • The crises are more acute and there are fewer options over time to keep capitalism going Social reproduction and nature • Social reproduction of society • the way people live and are sustained • Whatever it takes to get a worker back the next day (food, water, shelter, etc.) and to make new workers • To produce and reproduce the functions of a society through its people • Unhealthy workers are less productive workers • High consumption costs and low options make production and reproduction difficult • Because social inequality is built into the system, there is inequality in access to high quality reproduction • Your second ed text makes points about environmental justice and eco-feminist perspectives here – your third ed text expands on these ideas in two new chapters covered later in the course. I will discuss very briefly here: Environmental justice • Environmental hazards are often located in minority and low-income areas • Is it that hazardous materials are placed in minority or lowincome neighborhoods? • Is it that housing values are lower near hazardous materials, so minority and low-income families move there? • Both. Minorities and low-income people are more likely to live near hazardous materials because they have less power to protest. • We will discuss more in Racialized Environments lecture Gender and the political economy of environmental activism • Eco-feminism – the perspective that patriarchy is a source of environmental degradation and the social condition of women • Women make up the majority of environmental activists • May be because they are carrying out social reproductive duties and are more likely to notice water, air, and environmental quality as the source of health problems • Expert knowledge views nature as external and misses cues based on experience • We will discuss more in Feminism and Environment lecture Environments and economism • Problems with the political economy perspective: • Anthropocentric – does not help us approach problems with non-human entities • Focuses on capitalism and economy at the expense of other social and ecological relationships • Defers environmental activism until after economic problems are solved