The corporate capture of sustainable development and its transformation into a 'good Anthropocene' historical bloc

Inspired by Antonio Gramsci's analysis of bourgeois hegemony and his theoretical formulation of historical blocs, this paper attempts to explain how the concept and practice of sustainable development were captured by corporate interests in the last few decades of the twentieth century and how they were transformed into what we can name a 'good Anthropocene' historical bloc at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This corporate capture is theorised in terms of the transnational capitalist class as represented by corporate, statist/political, professional and consumerist fractions operating at all levels of an increasingly globalising world. In this essay, I propose the term 'critical Anthropocene narrative', highlighting the dangers posed by the Anthropocene and the need for radical systems' change entailing the end of capitalism and the hierarchical state. The critical Anthropocene narrative, thus, stands in radical opposition to the 'good Anthropocene' narrative which I argue was invented as a strategy to defend the socio-economic status quo by the proponents of sustainable development and their successors in the Anthropocene era, despite the good intentions of many environmentalists working in corporations, governments, NGOs, and international organizations. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how to deal with the potential existential threats to the survival of humanity

Beleaguered city, beleaguered planet

This article sets out to analyze the connections between three different but related phenomena (capitalist globalization, the Anthropocene, and the coronavirus epidemic) through the lens of iconic buildings and spaces and the cities in which they are mostly found. I argue that the transnational capitalist class uses cities as competitors in a global system of lucrative investment opportunities. Capitalist globalization is widely implicated in the Anthropocene (signifying human impacts on the Earth system, usually destructive) and together they facilitate the spread of the coronavirus. The concept of "administrative evil"is mobilized to highlight the ethical dimensions of city planning, and the increasingly "beleaguered city.

Book review: Beyond money: a postcapitalist strategy by Anitra Nelson

In Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, Anitra Nelson makes the case for abolishing money to achieve a truly postcapitalist future and explores how societies without money might be organised in everyday life. Through its expansive coverage and imaginative connections, this inspiring book encourages us to ponder why it might be ‘easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of money’, writes Leslie Sklair. Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy. Anitra Nelson. Pluto Press. 2022

Book review: Beyond money: a postcapitalist strategy by Anitra Nelson

In Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, Anitra Nelson makes the case for abolishing money to achieve a truly postcapitalist future and explores how societies without money might be organised in everyday life. Through its expansive coverage and imaginative connections, this inspiring book encourages us to ponder why it might be ‘easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of money’, writes Leslie Sklair. Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy. Anitra Nelson. Pluto Press. 2022

The Anthropocene Media Project. Mass Media on Human Impacts on the Earth System.

The Anthropocene Media Project is an on-going research project on how the Anthropocene (the geological concept created to measure and name human impacts on the Earth System) is represented in the mass media in local languages all over the world. So far, data has been collected from online searches of newspapers, magazines and other news media websites from around 100 countries/regions by about 50 volunteer researchers. The data is being analyzed by years of publication, numbers and types of articles. The paper concludes with some observations on the role and responsibility of the mass media in interpreting science for various publics

Introduction to the special issue on world-systems analysis and the Anthropocene

Across the social sciences and humanities, and in diverse forms of popular media around the world, discourse about the Anthropocene is proliferating. From the plastic particles found in deep sea trenches to the unfolding of Earth’s sixth mass extinction, among many other indicators—notably anthropogenic climate change—it is clear that human impacts may have irreversibly perturbed the planet. This special issue sets out to deepen and broaden the conversation from a world-systems perspective. Building upon a long tradition of scholarship deploying world-systems theory to understand global environmental change, we wish to explore the past, present, and future of the world-system with/in the Anthropocene. In this introduction we first offer prefatory remarks about the Anthropocene (by no means a universally accepted concept) that are meant to help orient readers to debates around the Anthropocene before turning to a summary of the contributions and the themes that emerge in this Special Issue

The icon project: architecture, cities and capitalist globalization

In the last quarter century, a new form of iconic architecture has appeared throughout the world's major cities. Typically designed by globe-trotting "starchitects" or by a few large transnational architectural firms, these projects are almost always funded by the private sector in the service of private interests. Whereas in the past monumental architecture often had a strong public component, the urban ziggurats of today are emblems and conduits of capitalist globalization. In The Icon Project, Leslie Sklair focuses on ways in which capitalist globalization is produced and represented all over the world, especially in globalizing cities. Sklair traces how the iconic buildings of our era — elaborate shopping malls, spectacular museums, and vast urban megaprojects — constitute the triumphal "Icon Project" of contemporary global capitalism, promoting increasing inequality and hyperconsumerism. Two of the most significant strains of iconic architecture — unique icons recognized as works of art, designed by the likes of Gehry, Foster, Koolhaas, and Hadid, as well as successful, derivative icons that copy elements of the starchitects' work — speak to the centrality of hyperconsumerism within contemporary capitalism. Along with explaining how the architecture industry organizes the social production and marketing of iconic structures, he also shows how corporations increasingly dominate the built environment and promote the trend towards globalizing, consumerist cities. The Icon Project, Sklair argues, is a weapon in the struggle to solidify capitalist hegemony as well as reinforce transnational capitalist control of where we live, what we consume, and how we think

The Third wave in globalization theory

This essay examines a proposition made in the literature that there are three waves in globalization theory—the globalist, skeptical, and postskeptical or transformational waves—and argues that this division requires a new look. The essay is a critique of the third of these waves and its relationship with the second wave. Contributors to the third wave not only defend the idea of globalization from criticism by the skeptics but also try to construct a more complex and qualified theory of globalization than provided by first-wave accounts. The argument made here is that third-wave authors come to conclusions that try to defend globalization yet include qualifications that in practice reaffirm skeptical claims. This feature of the literature has been overlooked in debates and the aim of this essay is to revisit the literature and identify as well as discuss this problem. Such a presentation has political implications. Third wavers propose globalist cosmopolitan democracy when the substance of their arguments does more in practice to bolster the skeptical view of politics based on inequality and conflict, nation-states and regional blocs, and alliances of common interest or ideology rather than cosmopolitan global structures