Green Economy, Green Capitalism and the Imperial Mode of Living： Limits to a Prominent Strategy, Contours of a Possible New Capitalist Formation

作     者：Ulrich Brand 

作者机构：Department of Political Science University of Vienna Universitatsstraβe 7/2 1010 ViennaAustria 

出 版 物：《Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences》 (复旦人文社会科学论丛（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2016年第9卷第1期

页      面：107-121页

学科分类：02[经济学] 0202[经济学-应用经济学] 0201[经济学-理论经济学] 020106[经济学-人口、资源与环境经济学] 020101[经济学-政治经济学] 

基　　金：Beijing office of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Peking University, PKU 

主　　题：Green economy · Green capitalism · Imperial mode of living · Societal nature relations · Marxism 

摘      要：Since some years, the strategy of a Green Economy as a current form of ecological modernization was proposed. The paper highlights the core issues of the concept and its structural constraints. Several constraints of a far-reaching realization of a Green Economy are presented, and one constraint is highlighted, i.e., the imperial mode of （production and） living. The latter gives emphasis to the continuous and largely unquestioned access to products produced by cheap labor and under environmentally problematic conditions. This mode of living, the paper argues, is also attractive among the upper and middle classed in countries with emerging economies like China. Moreover, it compares it with the concept of sustainable development which emerged some 15 years ago. Like sustainable development, proposals for a Green Economy might become ＂a tranquilizing dis- positive＂ in order to silence doubt and criticisms. However, it is argued that, despite the improbability of realizing the ambitious objectives, the Green Economy strategy might contribute to further capitalist development. Environmental issues might be integrated into the mode of production and living. However, given capitalist and imperial structures and dynamics, this will occur in highly selective and partial ways. The author calls this emerging constellation and possible new mode of development in some countries or regions of the world Green Capitalism.