Paul Burkett, Indiana State University, Terre Haute
This book undertakes the first general assessment of ecological economics from a Marxist point of view, and shows how Marxist political economy can make a substantial contribution to ecological economics. The analysis is developed in terms of four basic issues: (1) nature and economic value; (2) the treatment of nature as capital; (3) the significance of the entropy law for economic systems; (4) the concept of sustainable development. In each case, it is shown that Marxism can help ecological economics fulfill its commitments to multi-disciplinarity, methodological pluralism, and historical openness. In this way, a foundation is constructed for a substantive dialogue between Marxists and ecological economists.
Biographical note
Readership
Table of contents
Introduction1. The Value Problem in Ecological Economics: Lessons from the Physiocrats and Marx
2. Values in Ecological Value Analysis: What Should We Be Learning from Contingent Valuation Studies?
3. Natural Capital in Ecological Economics
4. Marxism and the Resistance to Natural Capital
5. Entropy in Ecologigal Economics: A Marxist Intervention
6. Energy, Entropy and Classical Marxism: Debunking the Podolinsky Myth
7. Power Inequality and the Environment
8. Straffian Models of Ecological Conflict and Crisis
9. Towards a Marxist Approach to Ecological Conflicts and Crisis
10. Marxism, Ecological Economics, and Sustainable Human Development
References
Index