Two Conceptualisations of Socio-ecological Crisis

Abstract

In this chapter I turn to the conceptualisation of socio-ecological crisis. Different forms of social organisations have different ecological ‘conditions of possibility’. Socio-ecological crisis is a scenario in which these conditions of possibility can no longer be secured. To capture this in greater detail, I introduce two overlapping conceptualisations: socio-ecological crisis as ‘metabolic rift’ and socio-ecological crisis as the exhaustion of broader ‘socio-ecological relations’. I conclude that the second conceptualisation holds purchase on a broader range of issues that the first misses, describing a more intractable form of crisis with more expansive implications for the fashioning of a decisive response. Consequently, the question of which of these two conceptualisations best describes the socio-ecological crisis that is confronting contemporary societies is of great importance.