Ecologically unequal exchange and raw materialism: The material foundations of the capitalist world-economy

Abstract

This chapter brings the ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) literature into dialogue with another world-systems theoretical model, raw materialism. This theoretical model focuses attention on the raw materials-based industries and linked transport systems that are used to solve the most fundamental challenge to rapid economic growth: how to acquire growing volumes of raw materials at lower costs and in greater and more secure volumes than other competing economies. Historically, many rising economies used raw materials access strategies that focused on stealing raw material peripheries from established hegemons. The current historical juncture in China's economic ascent and in the coal industry creates an opportunity for integrating the insights of EUE and raw materialism to understand the multidimensional causes and consequences of global inequalities over the very long term.