Capitalism, Contradiction, Crises: Pushing back the limits to capital or breaching the capacity of the planetary ecosystem?

Hudson, R.

Abstract

Capitalist economies are structured around two fundamental contradictions. The first lies within the social relations of capital, and the second in the ‘metabolic rift’ between capital accumulation and nature. While the adverse effects of the first do create systemic existential crises, capital and its political representatives have discovered ways of temporarily containing them and creating new space for enhanced accumulation. In contrast, the risks emanating from the second contradiction, located in the disjuncture between capital’s need for compound economic growth and the capacity of the planetary ecosystem as a source of material inputs and a sink for inevitable unwanted by-products, cannot be so contained. As such, the second contradiction represents an immanent existential threat to the capitalist mode of production and the societies in which it is, to varying degrees, embedded, of which the most pressing contemporary expression is enhanced global warming.

Citation

Hudson, R. (2021). Capitalism, Contradiction, Crises: Pushing back the limits to capital or breaching the capacity of the planetary ecosystem?. Area Development and Policy, 6(2), 123-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2020.1854615

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 17, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 15, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2020
• Journal: Area Development and Policy
• Print ISSN: 2379-2949
• Electronic ISSN: 2379-2957
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 123-142
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2020.1854615
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1283552