The non-ecology of the rich: elite power and the politics of ecological inequality

This integrative conceptual analysis develops the notion of the non-ecology of the rich to examine how structurally privileged positions shape relations to ecological crisis. Bringing political ecology into dialogue with Bourdieusian social theory, it argues that ecological inequality concerns not only unequal environmental impacts and exposure, but also unequal capacities to negotiate ecological constraints, displace their costs, and define legitimate responses to them. Building on research on carbon inequality, environmental privilege, ecological habitus, luxury and sustainable consumption, environmental gentrification, and green capitalism, the article conceptualizes the non-ecology of the rich through three interrelated dimensions: insulation from ecological constraints, externalization of ecological costs, and symbolic authority over legitimate sustainability. Its analytical contribution lies not in identifying previously unknown mechanisms or a distinct set of elite environmental practices, but in integrating these dimensions within a relational framework that connects material, spatial, and symbolic forms of socioecological power. The article reconsiders the relationship between the environmentalism of the poor and the non-ecology of the rich as a structural asymmetry rather than a categorical opposition between homogeneous social groups. Drawing on existing research on mobility, environmentally privileged urban space, and private adaptation, it explores how different combinations of insulation, externalization, and symbolic authority may become visible across socioecological contexts. The concept ultimately shifts attention from what affluent actors do to the environment toward the unequal social relations through which ecological limits are experienced, distributed, negotiated, and politically defined. In doing so, the article proposes a conceptual framework for investigating ecological inequality as a configuration of material, spatial, and symbolic power.