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Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Environmental Load Displacement

Global Perspectives on Structural Inequalities and the Environment

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Handbook of Environmental Sociology

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Ecologically unequal exchange theory and the concept of environmental load displacement contribute two important global, political economic approaches to environmental sociology. In this chapter, we first introduce these two concepts. We then trace the intertwined but distinct historical roots of these two ideas, which have now coalesced into a more unified body of research. Next, we discuss early foundational theoretical development and empirical research. Then we review the most current research to date, including several special issues of journals and a recently published book on these perspectives. We conclude with thoughts on future directions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Neoliberalism, consisting of proscriptions for growth that promote the idea of free markets, may be modernization theory in “altered clothing” as it provides proscriptions for less-developed countries to catch up to more-developed ones, ignoring many of the complications pointed out by both de-pendency and world-systems theories (Wallerstein, 2000: 106).

  2. 2.

    There are parallels here to ecological modernization theory (e.g., Mol, 1997) from environmental sociology.

  3. 3.

    The International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2009, v50, issue 3–4, Jorgenson and Clark, (Eds.).

  4. 4.

    Special section of the Journal of Political Ecology, 2016, v23, pp. 328–491, Hornborg and Martinez-Alier (Eds.); The Journal of World-Systems Research, 2017, v23, issue 2, Gellert, Frey, and Dahms (Eds.); Ecologically Unequal Exchange: Environmental Injustice in Comparative and Historical Perspective, 2019, Frey, Gellert, and Dahms (Eds.).

  5. 5.

    CIWB is operationalized as the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions per capita and average life expectancy. A higher CIWB suggests more resources are used to produce human well-being.

  6. 6.

    Water footprint measures the volume of local water resources used in the production of goods and services in a country (Water Footprint Network http://waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/national-water-footprint/).

  7. 7.

    Research in this area also addresses distributional conflicts by building on the materials flow analysis of Fischer-Kowalski (1998). For example, Temper (2016) uses a socio-ecological indicator from systems ecology to examine biomass flow appropriated by human activity versus what is left in the ecosystems for other species (see also Martinez-Alier et al., 2016a; Mayer & Haas, 2016; Warlenius, 2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Jennifer E. Givens

  2. Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Xiaorui Huang

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    Beth Schaefer Caniglia

  2. Department of Sociology and Environmental Studies Program, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Andrew Jorgenson

  3. Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Stephanie A. Malin

  4. Department of Sociology and Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Lori Peek

  5. Environmental Studies Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David N. Pellow

  6. Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Xiaorui Huang

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Givens, J.E., Huang, X. (2021). Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Environmental Load Displacement. In: Schaefer Caniglia, B., Jorgenson, A., Malin, S.A., Peek, L., Pellow, D.N., Huang, X. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77712-8_4

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