Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper explores the appropriation of the notion of metabolism for the critique of capitalist societies. The concept, originally developed in biology, was used already by Marx to analyse the relation between society and natural environment, with such conceptual formulations as “social metabolism”, and “the metabolism between humanity and nature”. The notion of metabolism received a renewed attention in recent decades due to human induced climate collapse and the Anthropocene theses. Marxist leaning critics of environmental destruction now use concepts of “metabolic rift” and “metabolic shift”. Thus, the idea of metabolism becomes key notion in social-ecological critique of capital. In this paper I explore the history of this appropriation of the notion of metabolism for social ecology and will comment on some challenges faced when attempting to use the notion from life sciences for social sciences.