The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of CapitalismOur Unsustainable Life: Why We Can't Have Everything We Want With the concept of the Imperial Mode of Living, Brand and Wissen highlight the fact that capitalism implies uneven development as well as a constant and accelerating universalisation of a Western mode of production and living. The logic of liberal markets since the 19thCentury, and especially since World War II, has been inscribed into everyday practices that are usually unconsciously reproduced. The authors show that they are a main driver of the ecological crisis and economic and political instability. The Imperial Mode of Living implies that people's everyday practices, including individual and societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources; a disproportionate claim on global and local ecosystems and sinks; and cheap labour from elsewhere. This availability of commodities is largely organised through the world market, backed by military force and/or the asymmetric relations of forces as they have been inscribed in international institutions. Moreover, the Imperial Mode of Living implies asymmetrical social relations along class, gender and race within the respective countries. Here too, it is driven by the capitalist accumulation imperative, growth-oriented state policies and status consumption. The concrete production conditions of commodities are rendered invisible in the places where the commodities are consumed. The imperialist world order is normalized through the mode of production and living. |
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Contents
At the Boundaries of a Mode of Living | 1 |
Multiple Crises and Socioecological Transformation | 13 |
The Concept of the Imperial Mode of Living | 39 |
The Historical Making of the Imperial Mode of Living | 69 |
The Global Universalization and Deepening | 101 |
Imperial Automobility | 135 |
Other editions - View all
The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of ... Ulrich Brand,Markus Wissen No preview available - 2021 |
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agricultural alternatives Antonio Gramsci appropriation automobile become Brand capitalism capitalist cent centres century Chapter China climate concept consumer consumption costs countries created crises crisis critical critique debate demand destruction discussion dominant ecological economic effects emerging energy environmental especially established European example existing experience externalization fact forces forms fundamental German global North green groups growth human idea imperial mode important increasing increasingly individual industrial institutions interests International labour land less London material means middle million mode of living movements nature Organization perspective policies political population possible practices Press problems production question regions relations relationships remain reproduction requires result rising ruling sense social society socio-ecological South specific strategies structures struggles subjectivity sustainable tion trade transformation transport University Verlag workers York
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism |
| Authors | Ulrich Brand, Markus Wissen |
| Publisher | Verso Books, 2021 |
| ISBN | 1788739124, 9781788739122 |
| Length | 256 pages |
| Subjects | › › Political Science / History & Theory Political Science / Political Economy Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |