ABSTRACT
Capitalism has evolved since its emergence in Europe some 500 years ago into a world system committed to profit-making, economic growth, and a treadmill of production and consumption highly dependent upon fossil fuels that result in greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to anthropogenic climate change. Humanity has arrived at critical juncture that poses the question can it adequately address the contradictions associated with capitalism by creating a more equitable and green capitalism or does capitalism need to be transcended with a more socially just, democratic, and environmentally sustainable world system that draws from various counter-hegemonic voices, including ones drawing upon eco-socialist, eco-anarchist, eco-feminist, and Indigenous perspectives. Within the context of this debate, universities occupy a contradictory space. Whereas for the most part they have become hegemonic institutions facilitating capitalist agendas, they theoretically contain the potential to either help demobilize the excesses of capitalism and even transcend it.
