Bookchin: A Critical Appraisal

Bookchin White 00 pre i 29/8/08 14:22:32 White 00 pre ii 29/8/08 14:22:32 Bookchin A Critical Appraisal DAMIAN F. WHITE PLUTO PRESS www.plutobooks.com White 00 pre iii 29/8/08 14:22:33 First published 2008 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Damian F. White 2008 The right of Damian F. White to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN ISBN 978 0 7453 1965 0 Hardback 978 0 7453 1964 3 Paperback Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70% post consumer waste. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne White 00 pre iv 29/8/08 14:22:33 To Mum and Dad Mark and Sarah With Love and Thanks White 00 pre v 29/8/08 14:22:33 White 00 pre vi 29/8/08 14:22:34 Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgments xi xiii PART ONE: BEGINNINGS Introduction 3 Orientations Bookchin’s Critics Plan of the Work 5 6 8 1 Environments, Cities and Post-Scarcity Worlds The Political Life of an American Radical Contemporary Issues Neither Washington nor Moscow The Problem of Chemicals in Food Our Synthetic Environment Emerging Themes in Bookchin’s Early Writings Post-Scarcity Politics and Ecology as Revolutionary Thought Beyond the New Left Mapping the Arc of Bookchin’s Work Intellectual Influences 12 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 24 24 26 PART TWO: THE LEGACY OF DOMINATION 2 Hierarchy, Domination, Nature: Bookchin’s Historical Social Theory Marxism and ‘Bourgeois Sociology’ From Social Classes and the State to Social Hierarchy and Social Domination The Outlook of Organic Society The Emergence of Hierarchy A ‘Legacy of Domination’ and a ‘Legacy of Freedom’ Considering Bookchin’s Historical Social Theory Organic Society I: Vagaries and Inconsistencies White 00 pre vii 31 32 34 36 37 39 40 42 29/8/08 14:22:34 viii Contents Organic Society II: Anthropological Evidence and Methodological Concerns After Ecological Romanticism Social Hierarchy/Social Domination Social Hierarchy, Social Domination and the Idea of the Dominating of Nature by Humans Dominant Ideologies and Actual Relations with Nature Time, Space, Social Production and Social Ecologies Domination, Liberation, and the Production, Reproduction and Enframing of Active Nature(s) Domination/Producing/Appropriating Nature 45 47 48 50 52 55 56 59 3 Social Ecology as Modern Social Theory The Emergence of Capitalism Mapping the Contours of ‘Advanced’ Capitalism Developing a Critique of ‘Advanced’ Capitalism Defining the Environmental Agenda The Critique of Neo-Malthusianism Causality and Problem Definition in Socio-Ecological Critique Socio-Ecological Critique without Malthus Post-Scarcity Ecology The Virtues of Bookchin’s Approach to Socio-Ecological Critique 62 62 64 65 70 70 4 Capitalism and Ecology The ‘Grow or Die’ Thesis Bookchin’s Macro Eco-Crisis The