Introduction: Ecologically unequal exchange in comparative and historical perspective

Abstract

At a time of increased societal urgency surrounding ecological crises from depleted fisheries (Longo, Clausen, and Clark 2015) to mineral extraction (Bunker and Ciccantell 2005) and potential pathways toward environmental justice (Martinez-Alier et al. 2016; Smith, Plummer, and Hughes 2016), this collection of papers re-examines ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) in historical and comparative perspective. The theory of EUE, grounded in Wallerstein’s (1974–2011) world-systems perspective and the work of Amin (1976), Bunker (1985), and Emmanuel (1972), posits that core or northern consumption and capital accumulation are based on peripheral or southern environmental degradation and extraction. In other words, structures of social and environmental inequality between the Global North and Global South are founded in the extraction of materials from, as well as the displacement of hazardous production processes and wastes to, the Global South (Frey, Gellert, and Dahms 2017; Hornborg and Martinez-Alier 2016; Jorgenson 2016a, 2016b; Jorgenson and Clark 2009a). These unequal relations underscore a large ecological debt owed to the periphery by the core countries; this debt is a key source for many of the previous and current environmental distribution conflicts that have taken place and continue to take place throughout the world-system (Hornborg and Martinez-Alier 2016; Martinez-Alier et al. 2016).