Looking from a long-term perspective, current debates on social-ecological crises have changed dramatically. During former decades neither a critique of political economy nor a transformation beyond capitalism played a decisive role in social-ecological debates.
In reverse, today the need for a "Great Transformation" is close to the centre of academic research and political activism - and even the work of Marx is sometimes mentioned in this regard. Eco-Marxism, Neo-Marxist (e.g. Moore, Foster, Malm), (Neo-)Polanyian and many others approaches coincide that the capitalist character of global societies is decisive for a critical understanding of the interlinked social-ecological crises - but for several reasons. At the same time, the publication of MEGA2 and some other publications (e.g. Saito`s book on Marx` notebooks on natural sciences) open-up new pathways for understanding and applying Marx́ work on ecological issues. Until now, however, both areas of debate - on social-ecological transformation (SET) and on Marx́ critique of Political Economy and their relevance for ecological issues - are linked to each other only occasionally. The presentation offers some considerations on what both areas can learn from each other - and how a critical approach on Marx can improve current research on SET.
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Das Umweltkolloquium ist eine Kooperation des Instituts für Politikwissenschaft der Uni Wien mit dem Institut für Soziale Ökologie der BOKU.
Termine und Themen des Umweltkolloquiums: http://www.univie.ac.at/intpol/home/forschung/kolloquien-3/umwelt-kolloquium/