Introduction to Ecological Economics: Energy, Environment and Society
Author(s)
Martinez-Alier, Juan; Schlupmann, Klaus
Abstract
The focus of this volume is the study of energy flow, a unifying principle in ecological analysis, and its application to the economic system. Although the “energetic dogma,” which seeks to trace all value to embodied energy, is rejected, the relation between energy flow and economic activity can still provide a fruitful field of study, drawing on an extensive literature dealing with the interaction between human ecological energetics and economics. This book covers the period between Jevons’ “The Coal Question” and the 1940s. The object of the volume is to make a contribution to the ecological critique of economic theory “by resurrecting the arguments of half-forgotten authors.” The existence of an historical school of ecological economics is often not acknowledged, even by its current advocates; this book may serve to rectify this omission.
