A Critical Introduction to the Economics of Sustainability

This book explores the various schools of thought which have endeavored to understand the interactions between technological development, economic growth, and the movement of material and energy through biological and social systems.

Examining both economic thought and technological development through a historical lens, Brett Caraway sheds light on the relationship between patterns of economic growth and innovation on the one hand and escalating environmental and ecological crises on the other hand. The book is organized into two parts. In the first part, Caraway surveys the major theoretical frameworks and analytical approaches to the study of the linkages among value, economic growth, technological innovation, and environmental/ecological crises. He highlights contributions from pre-economic schools of thought, classical political economy, neoclassical economics, environmental economics, ecological economics, and Marxian theory. In the second half of the book, Caraway provides an overview of the history of the relationship between energy and wealth, paying particular attention to the Industrial Revolution and the concomitant development of an information economy. Using a series of case studies, he shows how the development of a global hydrocarbon economy and communications infrastructure dramatically increased matter/energy flows and destabilized global ecosystems. Caraway concludes the book by presenting a robust set of criteria for assessing the ecological impact of business practices and industries, especially with regard to green technology.

Diverse in scope, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of ecological and environmental economics, sustainability, environmental communication, and eco-media studies.