Limits to Capitalist Nature

Ulrich Brand is Professor of International Politics at the University of Vienna.Markus Wissen is Professor of Social Science at the Berlin School of Economics & Law.

How and why does capitalism ceaselessly exploit the biophysical world yet remain resilient in the face of its manifest failures? Through their concept of the 'imperial mode of living' the authors show how the destructive forces of capitalism become, paradoxically, opportunities not only for political opposition but for capitalism itself. A battery of organisation, geographical and ideological manoeuvres allow the ecological limits to capitalism to be continuously overcome. Leveraging off these limits is the necessary work of capitalism's many opponents.

• Chapter 1: Theorizing the Imperial Mode of Living: An IntroductionChapter 2: The Crisis of Global Environmental Politics and the Imperial Mode of LivingChapter 3: Crisis and Continuity of Capitalist Societal Nature Relations Chapter 4: Strategies of a Green Economy, Contours of a Green CapitalismChapter 5: The Valorization and Financialization of Nature as Crisis StrategyChapter 6: Social-Ecological Transformation as the Horizon of a Practical Critique of the Imperial Mode of Living Chapter 7: Towards the Democratization of Societal Nature Relations Chapter 8: Overcoming the Imperial Mode of Living: Political and Strategic ImplicationsReferences Index