The Economist’s Planet: Speculation and Extractivism in Economic Thought from 1600 to the Anthropocene

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

For decades, fossil fuel corporations and their political supporters have actively undermined meaningful action on climate. But behind the vested interests of the oil companies lies an even bigger obstacle: the extractive and speculative vision of economic growth that shapes politics and policy across the world. Economics has been called the dismal science, but when it comes to visions of endless growth, mainstream economists are typically far more optimistic than thinkers in practically any other field. They have offered a guiding intellectual framework that has helped justify the capitalist system and the unsustainable practices of the Anthropocene. Understanding the rise of neoclassical economics also brings to light a rich alternative history of dissident economic thinking, from enlightenment natural history and socialism to degrowth and ecological economics.

This roundtable will explore the intellectual origins of the Anthropocene in the history of economic thought. The ideology of growth comes up in virtually all critical analysis of capitalism, yet the study of economic theory has been relatively neglected by environmental historians. Our roundtable will survey some major controversies of the field, including the concepts of scarcity, externalities, GDP, natural capital, and the economic value of biodiversity.

For the last three years, we have taken part in a working group devoted to the environmental and intellectual history of economic growth. While our interests range from early modern Europe to contemporary South Asia, we stand united in our common concern with the problem of the Anthropocene. Our working group has been a catalyst for several strands of new research, including Venus Bivar’s essay “Historicizing Economic Growth,” The Historical Journal (December 2022), Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind’s Scarcity: a History from the Origins of capitalism to the Climate Crisis (Harvard 2023), and Christopher Jones, The Invention of Infinite Growth (University of Chicago, Spring 2024).

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Chair

• Elizabeth Chatterjee, University of Chicago

Moderator

• Elizabeth Chatterjee, University of Chicago

Presenters

• Venus Bivar, University of Oxford

• Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, University of Chicago

• Christopher Jones, Arizona State University

• Carl Wennerlind, Barnard College/Columbia University