Ecologically unequal exchange, imperialism, and value theory: Toward a pluralist Marxist perspective

The hegemonic crisis has overshadowed the ecological crisis and the fragile political consensus surrounding it. The theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) reveals a connection between these two crises. The EUE approach, in its Marxist and non-reductionist versions, attempts to offer explanations for uneven development and the unequal distribution of environmental and social impacts. While Marxist theory of the EUE tends to merge the material and economic dimensions, non-reductionist theory of the EUE denies the need to complement the study of material, land, labor, and energy flows with a theory of value. This article reconsiders, on the one hand, the treatment of unequal exchange and imperialism theory by the Marxist theory of EUE and, on the other hand, the critics of labor value theory by the non-reductionist theory of EUE. In doing so, we aim to consider a third way, Marxist and pluralist, that addresses the material dimension of international trade as a substantive field and reconceptualizes value transfers in a non-substantialist sense.