John Bellamy Foster

Author: John Bellamy Foster

  • George Perkins Marsh and the Transformation of the Earth: An Introduction to Marsh’s Man and Nature

    “George Perkins Marsh and the Transformation of the Earth: An Introduction to Marsh’s Man and Nature“, [PDF], (coauthored with Brett Clark, Clark listed first), Organization and Environment, vol. 15, no. 2 (June 2002), pp. 164-69.

    George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) stated that his book, Man and Nature, was “a little volume showing the whereas [Carl] Ritter and [Arnold] Guyot think that the earth made man, man in fact made earth” (as cited in Lowenthal, 2000, p. 267). With this position, Marsh inverted a dominant theoretical transformation— both destruction and revitalization— of nature. Despite Marsh’s Calvinist background, he sought to remove teleological tendencies from scientific studies of the material world. In Man and Nature, Marsh (1864) provided a detailed discussion of the historical degradation of nature. His work is seen as a warning to a society that insists on an irrational interaction with nature. Marsh demanded that people must work to restore, to whatever extent is possible, damages to nature, as well as engage in practices that prevent further degradation of nature. Marsh’s work, Lewis Mumford (1931-1971) declared, was “the fountain-head of the conservation movement” (p. 35).

  • Environmental Sociology and the Environmental Revolution: A 25th Anniversary Assessment

    “Environmental Sociology and the Environmental Revolution: A 25th Anniversary Assessment,” [PDF], Organization and Environment, vol. 15, no. 1 (March 2002), pp. 55-58. DOI: 10.1177/1086026602151005

    It is a great honor to be asked to respond to articles by individuals who can all be rightly considered to be founders of environmental sociology, legendary figures in the field. If I have something distinctive to add to this symposium, it mostly arises out of my own standpoint as a respresentative of what I like to think is the second wave of environmental sociology. Environmental sociology arose in the 1970s and then waned for a time in membership and influence in the early and mid 1980s. In the late 1980s, however, new interest was sparked in the field as a result of the globalization of environmental issues, with growth of world concern about the destruction of the ozone layer, global warming, and species extinction (see Dunlap, 1997, p. 28-29). At the same time, these years saw the emergence of new kinds of radical environmentalism, incorporating the environmental justice movement, ecofeminism, and ecosocialism. Environmental sociology is much more divers than it was 25 or even 10 years ago— and that fact has to be a crucial part of any quarter—century assessment. I was to reflect here, then, not only on the past but also on the future of environmental sociology— its condition of long-term health.

     

  • Paul Sweezy and Monopoly Capitalism

    ”Paul Sweezy and Monopoly Capitalism,” in Doug Dowd, ed., Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analysis from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen (London: Pluto Press, 2002), pp. 132-50.

    Translations:
    • Spanish translation in Doug Dowd, ed., Entender el capitalismo Hacienda, 2006.

  • The Ecological Tyranny of the Bottom Line

    “The Ecological Tyranny of the Bottom Line: The Environmental and Social Consequences of Economic Reductionism,” Richard Hofrichter, ed, Reclaiming the Environmental Debate; The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000), pp. 135-53.

    In recent decades environmentalists have directed a persistent ecological critique at economics, contending that economics has failed to value the natural world. Lately economists have begun to respond to this critique, and a rapidly growing sub discipline of environmental economics has emerged that is dedicated to placing economic values on nature and integrating the environment more fully into the market system. However, the question arises: Is the cure more dangerous than the disease? Does the attempt to internalize the natural environment within the capitalist market system-without a radical transformation of the latter-lead to a new empire of the economy over ecology, a sort of neocolonialism where the old colonialism is no longer seen as sufficient? And what are the ultimate consequences of this?

  • Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift

    “Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology” [PDF], American Journal of Sociology, vol. 105, no. 2 (September 1999), pp. 366-405. DOI: 10.1086/210315

    This article addresses a paradox: on the one hand, environmental sociology, as currently developed, is closely associated with the thesis that the classical sociological tradition is devoid of systematic insights into environmental problems; on the other hand, evidence of crucial classical contributions in this area, particularly in Marx, but also in Weber, Durkheim, and others, is too abundant to be convincingly denied. The nature of this paradox, its origins, and the means of transcending it are illustrated primarily through an analysis of Marx’s theory of metabolic rift, which, it is contended, offers important classical foundations for environmental sociology.

    Reprints
    • R. Scott Frey, The Environment and Society: A Reader (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000, 2003).
    • Reprinted in Michael Redclift and Graham Woodgate, ed., New Developments in Environmental Sociology. (Aldershot, U.K., Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar, 2005), pp. 55-94.

  • Erde (Earth)

    ”Erde (Earth),” in Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch Des Marximus, Band 3 (Ebene-Extremisis) (Berlin: Argument-Verlag, 1997), pp. 669-710. [HTML]

    Reprints

  • Paul Marlor Sweezy 1910-

    “Paul Marlor Sweezy 1910–” in Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, edited by Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer (Brookfield, Vermont: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1992, pp. 562-70. [PDF]

    Editions

    • Revised and expanded for 2000 edition.

  • The Tendency of the Surplus to Rise, 1963–1988

    “The Tendency of the Surplus to Rise, 1963–1988” [PDF], (co-authored, second author with Michael Dawson), in John B. Davis, ed. The Economic Surplus in Advanced Economies (Brookfield, Vermont: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 42-70.

    In the increasingly universal monopoly-capitalist economy and culture of the late twentieth century, people no longer need what they want or want what they need. Wants are artificially manufactured while the most desperate needs of innumerable individuals remain unfulfilled. Although labor productivity has steadily risen, the overall efficiency and rationality of society has in many ways declined. Indeed, it is almost impossible to arrive at any other conclusion if one considers the lavish office structures in cities like New York, Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, where employees use the most technologically advanced means to “develop” yet another laundry detergent, television commercial, or leveraged buyout, while on the ground below large numbers of people lack decent housing, food, clothing, medical care, and education; if one considers automated assembly plants existing in the same social space as millions of unemployed, partially employed, “discouraged,” and poorly paid workers; or if one contemplates what it means to launch still another aircraft carrier, the total costs of which are equal to half the annual federal budget for elementary and secondary education.

    Reprints

  • Liberal Practicality and the U.S. Left

    “Liberal Practicality and the U.S. Left,” in Ralph Miliband, Leo Panitch and John Saville, ed., Socialist Register, 1990: The Retreat of the Intellectuals. (London: Merlin Press, 1990), pp. 265-89.

  • The Age of Restructuring

    “The Age of Restructuring,” in Arthur MacEwan and William K. Tabb, ed. Instability and Change in the International Economy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1989), pp. 281-97.