Bunker’s ecologically unequal exchange, foster’s metabolic rift, and moore’s world-ecology: Distinctions with or without a difference?

Abstract

Bunker, Foster, and Moore all address the unjust manner in which dominant actors in the capitalist world-system simultaneously exploit labor and nonhuman or biophysical nature while undermining sustainability. In the context of recent, largely one-sided criticism of Moore by Foster, this chapter highlights fundamental agreements regarding ecologically unequal exchange across all three of these sociologists. Then, it unpacks distinctions regarding capitalism as causing degradation, nature's ontology, epistemology and dialectical analysis, and possible futures that might overturn the current unsustainable situation. The conclusion reiterates the importance of Bunker's foundational work, peripheral vantage point, dialectical view of socio-nature, and realistic future vision, partly based in his posthumously published The Snake with Golden Braids.