John Bellamy Foster

Tag: Organization and Environment

Introduction to the Archives of Organizational and Environmental Literature

“Introduction to Archives of Organizational and Environmental Literature” [PDF], (co-authored with John M. Jermier, Foster listed first), Organization and Environment, vol. 11, no. 1 (March 1998), pp. 80-81. DOI: 10.1177/0921810698111004

With this issue, we are introducing and new feature section of O&E entitled Archives of Organizational and Environmental Literature. Consciousness of environmental degradation stretches back over millennia; concern about ecological imperialism associated with the growth of the capitalist world economy dates back five centuries; and alarm arising from the environmental effects of machine capitalism can be traced back to the industrial revolution in England two centuries ago. Over the course of history, many inportant insights into organization and environment, often of a theoretical nature, have emerged—only to be forgotten later on. Once forgotten, these important contributions have also become in many cases inaccessible— so that it is difficult to rediscover what has been lost.

March 1, 1998
The Crisis of the Earth: Marx’s Theory of Ecological Sustainability as a Nature-Imposed Necessity for Human Production
“The Crisis of the Earth: Marx’s Theory of Ecological Sustainability as a Nature-Imposed Necessity for Human Production” [PDF], Organization and Environment, vol. 10, no. 3 (September 1997), pp. 280-97. DOI: 10.1177/0921810697103003

Any systematic, forward-looking ecological vision must include three elements: (a) a theory of ecological crisis and its relation to human production; (b) a concept of sustainability as a nature-imposed necessity for production; (c) a vision of the transcendence of ecological crisis that establishes sustainability as a core part of any future society. All three elements are to be found in the work of Karl Marx. Marx `s analysis of the crisis of the earth (or soil) in the mid-nineteenth century led him to a concept of sustainability that was central to his vision of communist society. Because this concept of sustainability was rooted both in a critique of capitalism and a vision of a future society, it has a richness and complexity all its own. A close examination of Marx `s concept of sustainability therefore offers important insights into the possibilities for the creation of a more sustainable social order.
Reprints:
- Chapter 6 in Craig H. Humphrey, Tammy L. Lewis, and Frederick H. Buttel, ed., Environment, Energy, and Society: Exemplary Works (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003), pp. 120-36.
September 1, 1997

Tag: Organization and Environment

Introduction to the Archives of Organizational and Environmental Literature

The Crisis of the Earth: Marx’s Theory of Ecological Sustainability as a Nature-Imposed Necessity for Human Production

Reprints: