Earth Capital - Alessandro Stanziani

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Auteur(s) : Alessandro Stanziani - Thomas Piketty

Editeur : Polity Press

Langue : Anglais

Parution : 01/12/2025

Format : Moyen, de 350g à 1kg

Nombre de pages : 350.0

ISBN : 1509571493

Résumé :

This book is a major new history of capitalism that takes account of the material and ecological underpinnings of productive activity as well as the social, political and institutional dimensions of economic life. It retraces the history of capitalism over a long time period, giving particular attention to the role of food, agriculture, energy and natural resources, and with an eye to the future, mindful of the need to find solutions to an ecological crisis that threatens to overwhelm us all.

Alessandro Stanziani shows that the development of capitalism since the twelfth century has been based on two primary forms of exploitation: of labour, often coerced, and of what he calls 'Earth capital', by which he means both the planet as a whole and its land and natural resources as factors of production. While these two forms of exploitation have gone hand-in-hand, the emphasis has shifted over time: forced labour gradually declined in importance from 1870 to the present, the exploitation of land, fossil fuels and natural resources grew at an unprecedented rate from 1870 to precedented rate, the destructive consequences of which are becoming increasingly apparent today.

Looking to the future, Stanziani argues that, in order to deal with the immense challenges we now face, we must be prepared radically to rethink our economic and political systems. He proposes a new social contract that would make democracy, social equality and the environment the three pillars of the world of tomorrow.

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Biographie:
Alessandro Stanziani is Professor at the ?cole des hautes ?tudes en sciences sociales (EHESS) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris....

Sommaire:
Foreword by Thomas Piketty Earth Capital: Long Live Eco-History!

Introduction
When Does the Future Begin?
Thinking About Time, Appropriating the Future: A Global Perspective

Part I. Green Growth and Forced Labour, 12th-19th Centuries
1: Indispensable Labour, Forced Labour
Too Many People?
Where's the Capital?
A Law for the Masters
Global Economic Growth

2: Energy Resources in Pre-Industrial Economies
Wood and Coal
Wind and Seawater
Rivers Like No Others
Animal and Human Power

3: Crops and Material Culture
Wheat: The Wrong Right Answer
Hybridisation or Perhaps Not: Pasta
Many Rice Varieties, Not Just in Asia
Afro-American Maize
'Noble' Cane: Our Sweet Tooth, a Rod for Their Backs

4: A Dangerous Mix: Environment, Institutions and Inequality
Little Ice Age and the Collapse of Agrarian Empires
The Price is Right! Regulating Markets
Meat: A Scarce Food
Part I Conclusion: Why Europe? The Power of Violence and Constraint

Part II. The Productivist Regime and the Great Acceleration, 1870-1970
5: The Age of Capital
The Architecture of Competition
What the Modernisation of Agriculture Really Means
Creative Destruction? Chemicals in Food Production
Smog in the Global North, Flogging in the South: A New Energy Equilibrium

6: Seeds, Plants, and Genetics
Hybrid Maize: Miraculous Yields and Economic Dependence
Rice and Floods
Wheat: Standardization at the Expense of Nutrition

7: Transmissible Diseases and Food: Meat
Meat for All, but at What Cost?
Swine Trichinosis: Protectionism or Health Crisis?
An Epidemic without Borders: Bovine Tuberculosis
Conclusion: Epizootic to Zoonotic, the Pendulum Swings

8: Capital, Neo-Colonialism and Famine
Capital and Markets: Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Nouveaux Riches and Permanent Outsiders
Colonial Famines
Part II Conclusion

Part III. From the 1970s to 2050: High Globalisation, Collapse and the World After
9: Neoliberalism and the Euphoria of Speculation
Das Kapital Moves South
Energy Sources in the Age of Globalisation
Ever-Increasing Yields: The End of Illusions

10: Hunting for Seed Varieties vs. Genetic Selection
From Hybrids to GMOs
Seeds and Intellectual Property: Breaking the Link
Breeding Wipes Out Everything in Its Path
Why Can't We Live Without Meat?
The Boomerang Effect: Mad Cow Disease, Avian Flu and Covid
Babette's Feast

11: Towards the World After
An Ideal World in the Past?
Green Taxation vs. Inequalities
Should We Get Out of Capitalism?
Put an End to Speculation
Seeds and Intellectual Property: Breaking the Link
Restoring the Centrality of Labour

Conclusion: Just Institutions vs. Just Societies...