Ecological Economics, Marxism, and Technological Progress: Some Explorations of the Conceptual Foundations of Theories of Ecologically Unequal Exchange

Professor of human ecology at Lund University, a leading center in this field of study, the Swedish cultural anthropologist Alf Hornborg has contributed some of the most outstanding works on technology in relation to the appropriation of labor and territory from the frameworks of world-systems analysis and unequal exchange between North and South. Among many other works, two works succinctly synthesize his extensive contributions: The Power of the Machine and Global Magic. In relation to ecological economics, we suggest reading this article, in which he debates the need to keep the question of economic value and biophysical processes distinct for analytical purposes. The text is proposed as a debate with the unavoidable contributions of Foster and Burkett.