Ecological Political Economy: Towards a Strategic-Relational Approach

ABSTRACT

This article identifies three distinct traditions in what might be described as ‘ecological political economy’. First, a ‘Promethean’ approach posits that capitalism has a relentless drive towards growth and bears responsibility for the wholesale transformation of nature. Second, critics of sustainable capitalism acknowledge the possibility of capitalist futures with a better management of natural resources and carbon emissions. The Strategic Relational Approach, developed by Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum, points to a unique third type of ecological political economy. Each approach is shown to have distinct views concerning the commodification of nature, the role of the state and ways to understand ecological and social transitions. The Strategic Relational Approach points to the possibility of counter-hegemonic strategies and collective mobilization to transform the state and so redirect, control and contain capitalist relations with nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological political economy
• ecological economics
• climate change
• role of the state

JEL CODES:

• B5
• Q01
• Q54
• Q57

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Ian G. Baird, Bob Jessop, Pablo Mendez, Jamie Peck and reviewers for comments on earlier drafts, but discharges them of responsibility for this article's content. The author presented parts of this article at the 2015 meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Chicago. Research was made possible by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship Award for research on the Green Economy. Thanks to Kim Trainor for help with editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹For comparison with the Promethean critique, see Foster (2002) and Foster, Clark, and York (2010, pp. 207–211).