Overview

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.

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9780898624106

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.. .this is thoughtful and interesting book which seeks to develop a Marxist approach to development rooted in cultural and ecological conditions. --Chris Wilbert, Radical Philosophy <br>.. .a pioneering piece of eco-Marxism with special applicability to the Third World.... --John S. Dryzek, University of Melbourne, Contemporary Sociology <br> The publication of Green Production in English introduces Enrique Leff's brilliant and original work to a larger English-speaking audience. Rooted in more than a decade of scholarship, field research and environmental activism, Green Production directly addresses the challenges that environmentalism poses for Marxist political economy, and the new paths that are opened up for what he calls an eco-social theory of production. Drawing upon a profound understanding of critical theory and customary agricultural practices in the humid tropics, Leff's book is not simply the first serious book on ecological Marxism but pushes our underst

.,. this is thoughtful and interesting book which seeks to develop a Marxist approach to development rooted in cultural and ecological conditions. --Chris Wilbert, Radical Philosophy <br>.,. a pioneering piece of eco-Marxism with special applicability to the Third World.... --John S. Dryzek, University of Melbourne, Contemporary Sociology <br> The publication of Green Production in English introduces Enrique Leff's brilliant and original work to a larger English-speaking audience. Rooted in more than a decade of scholarship, field research and environmental activism, Green Production directly addresses the challenges that environmentalism poses for Marxist political economy, and the new paths that are opened up for what he calls an eco-social theory of production. Drawing upon a profound understanding of critical theory and customary agricultural practices in the humid tropics, Leff's book is not simply the first serious book on ecological Marxism but pushes our understanding the contradictions between development and environment by proposing an ambitious new theory of production. Green Production stands at the center of current debates over society and nature, and prompts us to think in entirely new and different terms about sustainable development. A magisterial synthesis of Marxism, ecology and cultural theory, Leff's book sweeps away much of the intellectual and theoretical detritus surrounding sustainability, and proposes a compelling vision for an alternative ecotechnological rationality. An important and provocative intervention by an internationally recognized environmentalist and activist. --Michael Watts, Professor, University of California, Berkeley <br> This isreally a very important book, probably the first of its type. It reviews the whole of the complex question of the relationship between ecology and economic rationality and calculation, starting from a critical reading of the philosophical debates over nature and society into a review of integrated resource management proposals, stressing the difficult valuation of environments. It should encourage further serious debates which are missing, replaced by superficial rhetorics. --Samir Amin, Professor of Economics, Director, Third World Forum <br> You can disagree with some (or many) of the theses of this book. What cannot be denied is that Green Production is one of the most serious contributions to the contemporary debate on political ecology worldwide. --Victor M. Toledo, Ph.D., National University of Mexico <br> This work is one of the most coherent and sensitive explorations of the contradictions inherent in economic and environmental thinking. Enrique Leff has provided an important and enlightening demonstration of the critical relationship of production to development, ecology, and culture. --Elmar Altvater, Ph.D., Free University of Berlin <br> Leff brings together the analysis of the dynamics of capitalism in the periphery of the world with the analysis of environmental movements of the poor in defense of the communal management of natural resources. The market economy produces 'externalities, ' environmental movements are a response at the social level against such 'externalities.' After the NAFTA agreement and the recent events in Chipas, Leff's account of the ecological rationality of peasant systems of production in Southern Mexico, and of environmental struggles againstpollution from oil exploitation, and in defense of the 'commons, ' become ever more relevant. --Prof. Dr. Joan Martinez-Alier, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, author of Ecological Economics <br>

.. .this is thoughtful and interesting book which seeks to develop a Marxist approach to development rooted in cultural and ecological conditions. --Chris Wilbert, Radical Philosophy <br>.. .a pioneering piece of eco-Marxism with special applicability to the Third World.... --John S. Dryzek, University of Melbourne, Contemporary Sociology <br> The publication of Green Production in English introduces Enrique Leff's brilliant and original work to a larger English-speaking audience. Rooted in more than a decade of scholarship, field research and environmental activism, Green Production directly addresses the challenges that environmentalism poses for Marxist political economy, and the new paths that are opened up for what he calls an eco-social theory of production. Drawing upon a profound understanding of critical theory and customary agricultural practices in the humid tropics, Leff's book is not simply the first serious book on ecological Marxism but pushes our understanding the contradictions between development and environment by proposing an ambitious new theory of production. Green Production stands at the center of current debates over society and nature, and prompts us to think in entirely new and different terms about sustainable development. A magisterial synthesis of Marxism, ecology and cultural theory, Leff's book sweeps away much of the intellectual and theoretical detritus surrounding sustainability, and proposes a compelling vision for an alternative ecotechnological rationality. An important and provocative intervention by an internationally recognized environmentalist and activist. --Michael Watts, Professor, University of California, Berkeley <br> This is really a very important book, probably the first of its type. It reviews the whole of the complex question of the relationship between ecology and economic rationality and calculation, starting from a critical reading of the philosophical debates over nature and society into ar

Author Information

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.

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