Sign-In
Cart
Global Ecology and Unequal Exchange: Fetishism in a Zero-Sum World
Hardcover
Series: Routledge Studies in Ecological Economics, Book 14
Business GeneralEconomicsEnvironmental Studies
ISBN13: 9780415614863
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Jun 30 2011
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.79
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
In modern society, we tend to have faith in technology. But is our concept of 'technology' itself a cultural illusion? This book challenges the idea that humanity as a whole is united in a common development toward increasingly efficient technologies. Instead it argues that modern technology implies a kind of global 'zero-sum game' involving uneven resource flows, which make it possible for wealthier parts of global society to save time and space at the expense of humans and environments in the poorer parts.
We tend to think of the functioning of machines as if it were detached from the social relations of exchange which make machines economically and physically possible (in some areas). But even the steam engine that was the core of the Industrial Revolution in England was indissolubly linked to slave labour and soil erosion in distant cotton plantations. And even as seemingly benign a technology as railways have historically saved time (and accessed space) primarily for those who can afford them, but at the expense of labour time and natural space lost for other social groups with less purchasing power. The existence of technology, in other words, is not a cornucopia signifying general human progress, but the unevenly distributed result of unequal resource transfers that the science of economics is not equipped to perceive. Technology is not simply a relation between humans and their natural environment, but more fundamentally a way of organizing global human society. From the very start it has been a global phenomenon, which has intertwined political, economic and environmental histories in complex and inequitable ways. This book unravels these complex connections and rejects the widespread notion that technology will make the world sustainable. Instead it suggests a radical reform of money, which would be as useful for achieving sustainability as for avoiding financial breakdown.
It brings together various perspectives from environmental and economic anthropology, ecological economics, political ecology, world-system analysis, fetishism theory, semiotics, environmental and economic history, and development theory. Its main contribution is a new understanding of technological development and concerns about global sustainability as questions of power and uneven distribution, ultimately deriving from the inherent logic of general-purpose money. It should be of interest to students and professionals with a background or current engagement in anthropology, sustainability studies, environmental history, economic history, or development studies.
Also in
Economics
Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949
Eastman, Lloyd E.
Paperback
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Hardcover
Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Hosts of Npr's Planet Money
Mayyasi, Alex
Hardcover
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
Ahamed, Liaquat
Hardcover
How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't)
Moore Phd, Joseph S.
Hardcover
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work
Roth, Alvin E.
Hardcover
Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America
Bryant, John Hope
Hardcover
What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Hardcover
Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win--And American Men Don't (Yet)
Kuper, Simon
Szymanski, Stefan
Paperback
Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat the Market
Coyle, George F.
Schwager, Jack D.
Hardcover
The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History
Williamson, Vanessa S.
Hardcover
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Gottlieb, Dylan
Hardcover
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
Wu, Tim
Hardcover
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shatteredâ a Nation (Large Print Edition)
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Baer, Justin
Hardcover
The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream
Dickerson, A. Mechele
Paperback
How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy
Bown, Chad P.
Keynes, Soumaya
Hardcover
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Acemoglu, Daron
Robinson, James A.
Paperback
5 Steps to a 5: AP Microeconomics 2027: Practice AP Tests + AP Content Review + Digital Exams
Dodge, Eric R.
Paperback
Who Gets What -- And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Roth, Alvin E.
Paperback
It's on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems
Loewenstein, George
Chater, Nick
Hardcover
Freakonomics Twentieth Anniversary Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Levitt, Steven D.
Dubner, Stephen J.
Paperback
A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation
Nations, Scott
Paperback
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Alden, Lyn
Paperback
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Dalio, Ray
Hardcover
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
Studwell, Joe
Hardcover
The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now
Thaler, Richard H.
Imas, Alex
Hardcover
Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to the Modern Era
Weldon, Duncan
Hardcover
Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too
Ramsey, Dave
Hardcover
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Marohn, Charles L., Jr.
Hardcover
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Banerjee, Abhijit V.
Duflo, Esther
Paperback
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Ariely, Dan
Paperback
Financial Literacy for All: Disrupting Struggle, Advancing Financial Freedom, and Building a New American Middle Class
Bryant, John Hope
Paperback
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Roberts, Russ
Paperback
The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Came to Believe a Dangerous Delusion
Jones, Christopher F.
Hardcover
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom /]Cby Grace Blakeley
Blakeley, Grace
Paperback
Abundancia: Cómo Construimos Un Mundo Mejor Abundance (Spanish Edition)
Klein, Ezra
Thompson, Derek
Paperback
The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821
Vague, Richard
Hardcover
Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet
Collins, Chuck
Hardcover
Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence
Navarro, Joe
Poynter, Toni Sciarra
Paperback
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
Mattei, Clara E.
Paperback
A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding The Market Economy And Defending Liberty
Wolfram, Gary
Paperback
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Paperback
Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry
Tan, Js
Redwine, Clarissa
Hardcover
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Johnson, Simon
Paperback
The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations
Bunel, Simon
Aghion, Philippe
Antonin, Céline
Paperback
The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans
Ludwig, Gene
Hardcover
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Milanovic, Branko
Hardcover
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Hazlitt, Henry
Paperback
9 Hábitos Japoneses Que Cambiarán Tu Vida / 9 Japanese Habits That Will Change Your Life
Rodríguez, Andrea
Paperback
The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
Boudreaux, Donald J.
Gramm, Phil
Hardcover
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Hardcover
The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right)
Lynch, David J.
Hardcover
The World Order - Our Secret Rulers: A Study in the Hegemony of Parasitism
Mullins, Eustace
Paperback
Talking to My Daughter about the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works--And How It Fails
Varoufakis, Yanis
Paperback
Small Startup Cities: How to Build a Thriving Startup Ecosystem in a Small City
Halaby, Dominique
Paperback
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
Leonard, Christopher
Paperback
Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000-2000
Greif, Avner
Mokyr, Joel
Tabellini, Guido
Hardcover
Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930
Kobrin, Rebecca
Hardcover
Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy
Slobodian, Quinn
Paperback
Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohammed Bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East
Cole, Matthew
Hardcover
AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics Premium, Eighth Edition: Prep Book with 4 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (2026)
Redelsheimer, James, M. a.
Musgrave, Frank, PH. D.
Kacapyr, Elia, PH. D.
Paperback
The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic - A Selected Edition for the Contemporary Reader
Smith, Adam
Hardcover
A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come
Leung, Nick
Canal, Marc
Bradley, Chris
Paperback
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ferguson, Niall
Paperback
Great American Investments: A History of the Bold Initiatives That Shaped a Nation
Ellis, Charles D.
Hardcover
The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
Smialek, Jeanna
Hardcover
Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Global Economy--And How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Rogoff, Kenneth S.
Reinhart, Carmen M.
Paperback
Bitcoin Is for Everyone: Why Our Financial System Is Broken and Bitcoin Is the Solution
Brunell, Natalie
Paperback