Synopses & Reviews
Enrique Leff provides a Marxist approach to environment and development that focuses on the process of production, and its implications of the environmental crisis on human values. To truly achieve a more rational and integrated use of our natural resources, he convincingly argues for a reorientation of science and technology towards the objectives of sustainable development, the decentralization of production, and the participatory management of natural resources.
Elaborating the links between critical political economy of the environment and political ecology, the author offers an alternative paradigm--based on a concept of ecotechnological rationality--for understanding and effectively integrating ecological productivity, technological innovation, and cultural organization in natural resource management. In addition, he provides an illuminating critique of traditional economic approaches to environmental development planning.
Review
"...a pioneering piece of eco-Marxism with special applicability to the Third World...."--Contemporary Sociology Contemporary Sociology
Synopsis
Over the last two decades, the environmental cost of capital accumulation has emerged as a serious social and economic problem. Many are now aware that the ways we utilize our natural and cultural resources have had a range of negative consequences internationally\m-\from the destabilization of ecosystems, the depletion of resources, and the degradation of our environment to the disintegration of cultural values and ethnic identity within local communities. Responses to this dilemma have varied, with traditional economists characterizing environmental issues as mere externalities and many ecologists focusing solely on protecting the environment. Offering a far more comprehensive view, Enrique Leff provides a Marxist approach to environment and development that focuses on the process of production, as well as implications of the environmental crisis on human values. To truly achieve a more rational and integrated use of our natural resources, he convincingly argues for a reorientation of science and technology towards the objectives of sustainable development, the decentralization of production, and the participatory management of natural resources.
About the Author
Enrique Leff, Ph.D., has been working with the United Nations Environment Programme since 1986 as Regional Coordinator of the Environmental Training Network for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published extensively on a critical theory of environment and development.