ABSTRACT
Perhaps ecology is an affect of modernity – an affect of the modern episteme and its incessant search for certainty, closure, and foundation. For liberal ecologists, environmental conflict tends to be reduced to problems of participatory democracy and unresponsive market mechanisms – to a lack, that is, of direct public influence over environmental decisions and of economic models capable of 'costing' environmental damage. As a means of diverting ecological conflict or elucidating the micropolitical aspects of ecological damage, ecomarxism contains a number of problematic elements. Ecomarxism would say government is putting profit and jobs before ecological sustainability. Merchant, for instance, speaks variously of liberal, marxist, cultural, social and socialist ecofeminism. In an attempt to move beyond crude anthropocentric accounts, deep ecology ascribes intrinsic value and indeed moral consideration to ecosystems writ large. Social ecology is a perspective that tries to take account of the problems embedded within the aforementioned standpoints.
