Time, Capitalism, and Political Ecology: Toward and Ecosocialist Metabolic Temporality
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Date
2022-10-26
Authors
Gamble, Cameron
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The ecological crises that have already marked the 21st century, and which will continue to do so on an increasingly intense and destructive scale, present theory in every discipline and field of study with a number of problems. Due to the complex historical origins and specific characteristics of these crises, many of the theoretical problems that arise with them, I contend, have to do with time and temporality, and not just in terms of how we conceive of time and temporality, but with the ways in which we socially and practically organize them, at the level of both the individual and collective, that is, the time of the worker and the time of social production.In this dissertation, I present an analysis of the problem of time in the warming world and of the temporal logic of capital to gain a better understanding of capitalism’s socio-metabolic temporality and the ways in which this specific organization of our interchange with nature produces ecological degradation and destruction. I argue that capital’s temporal logic and accumulation imperative, which have produced a global metabolic rift between nature and society, also results in the production of temporal- ecological rifts. In its ceaseless process of valorizing value, I show that capital subsumes ecological temporalities – that is, the life-cycles and rhythms of nature – under its own alienated, abstract temporality in order to make nature conform to capital’s time and accumulation imperatives.
In light of this, I assert that the warming world we now inhabit requires a strain of Political Ecology able to break with capital’s temporal logic if we are to foster a just socio-ecological transition that ensures a habitable planet for future generations. For this, we require a dialectical conception of the relation between society and nature and an eco-chronopolitic that considers the ecological long-term – not just the dictates of capital’s immediate, short-term expansion. In aiming to ecologically rationalize our socio-metabolic exchange with nature, I argue that we require an ecosocialist society and that Metabolic Rift Theory presents the best theoretical and practical guide for this task.