Fwd: Energy, surplus and the economic process
Giorgos
I am happy to share with you a new paper we have just published with colleagues in Ecological Economics:
“Energy, surplus and the economic process”
This theoretical paper attempts a synthesis of ecological and Marxist economics, developing some early insights by Serhiy Podolinsky. We argue that capitalism involves the appropriation of surplus energy by those who own the means of production, at the expense of workers, while shifting of costs from the former to the latter, and onto nature and future generations.
We see this as a particular case of the uneven distribution of energy surpluses between ruling and ruled classes in hierarchical societies. What is distinctive about capitalism is the systematic re-investment of surplus energy into social processes that generate ever larger surpluses, appropriated from nature and from workers. Bringing in insights from anthropology and STS we show how specific forms of representation have emerged historically to institutionalize and legitimate this fundamentally unjust growth process.
We suggest that this political-ecological-economic understanding of surplus and its role in the economic process can help us make sense of how growth works under capitalism (and beyond), and more generally, provides a foundation for what some of us call the theory, or hypothesis, of degrowth.
My best wishes,
Carrer de les columnes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona