Harry F. Dahms is Professor of Sociology, co-director of the Center for the Study of Social Justice, and co-chair of the Committee on Social Theory at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, USA. He is the editor of 'Current Perspectives in Social Theory' and director of the International Social Theory Consortium.


R. Scott Frey is Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for the Study of Social Justice at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, USA, and Senior Associate Researcher at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the National Research University, Russian Federation.


Paul K. Gellert is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville USA and Affiliated Fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), the Netherlands.

Assesses the theory of Ecologically Unequal Exchange from a world-system approach

Reflects critically on the foundational insights of Stephen G Bunker

Uses an energy-based accounting of unequal exchanges to demonstrate how inequalities are produced

Introduction: Ecologically Unequal Exchange in Comparative and Historical Perspective; R. Scott Frey, Paul K. Gellert, and Harry F. Dahms.- Part I: Theoretical Foundations of Ecologically Unequal Exchange.- 1. Toward a Theory of Ecologically Unequal Exchange; Stephen G. Bunker.- 2. Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Raw Materialism: The Material Foundations of the Capitalist World-Economy; Paul Ciccantell.- 3. Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Ecological Imperialism: Conceptualizing their Relation and Distinction; Mariko Frame.- 4. Bunker's Ecologically Unequal Exchange, Foster's Metabolic Rift and Moore's World-Ecology: Distinctions with or without a Difference?; Paul K. Gellert.- Part II: Cases of Ecologically Unequal Exchange in Comparative and Historical Context.- 5. The Entropy Curse; Laura McKinney.- 6. Mining Exports Flows, Repression, and Forest Loss: A Cross-National Test of Ecologically Unequal Exchange; Jamie M. Sommer, John M. Shandra, and Carolyn Coburn.- 7. From Sea Slavesto Slime Lines: Commodification and Unequal Ecological Exchange in Global Marine Fisheries; Brett Clark, Stefano B. Longo, Rebecca Clausen, and Daniel Auerbach.- 8. History Matters: Contingency in the Creation of Ecologically Unequal Exchange; Shellen Wu.- Part III: Thoughts on What Is Being Done? What Is to Be Done? And Who Should Do It?.- 9. Global Climate Justice Activism: 'The New Protagonists' and their Projects for a Just Transition; Jackie Smith, with Jacqueline Patterson.- 10. Splintering South: Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theory in a Fragmented Global Climate; David Ciplet and J. Timmons Roberts.- Epilogue: Ecologically Unequal Exchange in the 21st Century: The Logic of Capital, the Perversion of the Social, and the Destruction of Nature; Harry F. Dahms and R. Scott Frey.