Unequal Exchange and Ecological Consumption (Lipke)

for your kind attention -

Title: Unequal Exchange and Ecological Consumption -
a Quantitative Study of Dependency Structures in the World System

Author: Jürgen Lipke (Berlin, Germany)

A short version to be published in:
Ausgabe IV/2003 der Zeitschrift NORD SÜD aktuell (www.duei.de) im Februar
2004

Jürgen can be reached via email: mulli99@gmx.de

The article is his thesis (Staatsexamensarbeit) at the Zentrum für
Entwicklungsländerforschung (Geographisches Institut, Freie Universität
Berlin), thesis advisor Prof. Fred Scholz

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Abstract:

This article deals with two key problems in the modern world system: First,
there is an enormous extent of indirect exploitation as a result of an
economic (value) transfer by unequal exchange - a main characteristic of the
economic relations between the dominant core and the dependent peripheries;
for this analysis, a new quantifying method is used. Second, our world is
confronted with the excessive and unequal natural resource consumption of
countries, which shows a distinct core-periphery-gradient and
correspondingly a resource transfer; here, the ecological footprint serves
as the measure. This double transfer from the peripheries to the core
constitutes the persisting reproduction of the hierarchic structures of
historical capitalism. Hence, in a third step, the quantitative relation
between the economic and ecological distribution is illustrated.

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From the  Introduction

The present world is characterized on the one hand by an enormous unequal
distribution of wealth and resources, and on the other hand by the
progressive destruction of natural resources. We can see disparities within
countries and regions and particularly between the countries of the core and
the periphery, with unequal development, unequal access to resources and
unequal exchange relations which are the symptom and reason concomitantly
for these phenomena. Since colonial times, structures of "asymmetric
interdependency" were constituted, in which the peripheries, as outlets of
the capitalistic core, were and are forced to integrate into an unequal
international labor division.

For my empirical survey of these structures the following two quantitative
models were used: first, unequal exchange with a simple method to quantify
the monetary transfer between countries (chapter 2); second, the ecological
footprint as the measure of ecological (natural resource) consumption
(chapter 3); eventually, their relation was shown in two different forms
(chapter 4):

1.      The comparison of monetary unequal-exchange-transfer and absolute
ecological footprint.

2.      The comparison of monetary and ecologically unequal exchange
(monetary and ecological transfer).

For this study I assume an interaction between unequal exchange and unequal
ecological consumption: the first has facilitated a higher accumulation of
capital for the core, which excessively widens its ecological footprint.
This high resource consumption, made possible by the power of disposal,
contributes to the core's economic and political power, which can again
implement and strengthen the unequal exchange. Moreover, monetary and
ecologically unequal exchange occur simultaneously.

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Comment by GK: The "footprint" method was new to me; for the "unequal
exchange" estimates, Lipke follows Kohler and Tausch, Global
Keynesianism.

GK