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Socialist Register 2007

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December 2007

ISBN:
1-58367-152-8
$25.00 paper

304 pp.

Politics

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Socialist Register 2006


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COMING TO TERMS WITH NATURE

Socialist Register 2007

edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys


Since 1964, the Socialist Register has brought together leading writers on the left to investigate aspects of a common theme. Coming to Terms with Nature: Socialist Register 2007 examines whether capitalism can come to terms with today's ecological challenges and whether socialist thought has developed sufficiently to help us do so. Topics include: the ecological contradictions of capitalist accumulation and the growing social conflicts they create; the relationship between imperialism, markets, oil politics, and renewable energy; the significance of the impasse over the Kyoto protocol; and how technology can overcome the "limits to growth" and yet preserve the biosphere.

These essays also analyze how deeply consumerism affects working class politics and the shortcomings of Green parties and “green commerce.” In addition, they address the need to redefine standards of living chiefly in the countries of the North, in order to allow for the global redistribution of wealth and income necessary for development in the South. They also call for eco-socialist strategies that can marry democracy with the planning needed to come to terms with nature.

The international roster of contributors includes Mike Davis and Neil Smith (USA), Enrique Leff (Mexico), Joan Martinez-Alier (Spain), Elmar Altvater (Germany), and Michael Löwy (France).


Contributors and Contents

Preface

Neil Smith
Nature as Accumulation Strategy

Enrique Leff
The Ecological Contradictions of Capitalism

Neil Smith
Accumulation and Nature

Mike Davis
Historical Materialism and Climate History

Elmar Altvater
The Social and Natural Environment of Fossil Capitalism

Barbara Harriss-White and Elinor Harriss
Unsustainable Capitalism: the Politics of Renewable Energy in the UK

Jamie Peck
Neoliberal Hurricane: Who Framed New Orleans?

Phillip McMichael
Feeding the World: Agriculture, Development and Ecology

Henry Bernstein and Philip Woodhouse
Africa: Eco-Populist Utopias and (Micro-) Capitalist Realities

Minqi Li and Dale Wen
China: Hyper-Development and Environmental Crisis

Guillermo Castro
The Environmental Crisis in Latin America

Brenda Longfellow
Weather Report: Images from the Climate Crisis

Heather Rogers
Garbage Capitalism’s Green Commerce

Eric Swyngedouw
Water, Money, and Power

Achim Brunnengraber
The Political Economy of the Kyoto Protocol

Joan Martinez-Alier
Social Metabolism and Environmental Conflicts

Costas Panayatokis
Working More, Selling More, Consuming More: Capitalism’s “Third Contradiction”

Hidayat G. Greenfield
Working Class Movements and Environmentalism

Frieder Otto Wolf
Party Building for Eco-Socialists: Lessons from the Failed Project of the German Greens

Greg Albo
The Limits of Eco-Socialism: Scale, Strategy, Socialism

Michael Löwy
Eco-Socialism and Democratic Planning.


About the Editors
LEO PANITCH is professor of political science at York University in Toronto.

COLIN LEYS was for many years professor of political science at Queen's University in Canada.


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