Ecosystems and World Systems: Accumulation as anEcological Process

Abstract

World-systemic processes of capital accumulation are inextricably intermeshed with ecology. Not only do they have obvious repercussions on landscapes and ecosystems ( e.g., erosion, deforestation), but they are also fundamentally dependent on ecological aspects such as topsoil, forests, or minerals. The analytical disjunction of ecology and economics is a persistent feature of modern science. The minority of researchers who have seriously tried to integrate them in a common theoretical framework (cf. Martinez-Alier 1987) have run into major, conceptual difficulties. This paper addresses some of the issues raised in an attempt to ground the notion of capital accumulation in the physical realities of ecology and thermodynamics.