Jason W. Moore on Socialism in the Web of Life

Jason W. Moore discusses the problematic history of the nature-society divide, his alternative world-ecology approach and the challenges of building socialism. ShownotesJason’s personal website:https://jasonwmoore.com/Jason at Binghamtom University:https://www.binghamton.edu/sociology/faculty/profile.html?id=jwmooreThe World-Ecology Research Collective:https://worldecologynetwork.wordpress.com/https://www.researchgate.net/lab/World-Ecology-Research-Collective-Jason-W-MooreMoore, J. W., & Patel, R. (2020).  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. Verso.https://www.versobooks.com/products/817-a-history-of-the-world-in-seven-cheap-thingsMoore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the Web of Life. Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso.https://www.versobooks.com/products/74-capitalism-in-the-web-of-lifefor an overview of different approaches to conceptualizing society/capitalism and nature:https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/ecology-marxism-andreas-malm/on Andreas Malm:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_MalmMalm, A. (2018). The Progress of this Storm. Nature and Society in a Warming World. Verso.https://www.versobooks.com/products/574-the-progress-of-this-stormMalm, A. (2016). Fossil Capital. The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming. Verso.https://www.versobooks.com/products/135-fossil-capitalFederici, S. (2004). Caliban and the Witch. Autonomedia.https://files.libcom.org/files/Caliban%20and%20the%20Witch.pdfon Ernst Haeckel:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckelsee also the chapter on Haeckel and the German Monist League in:Gasman, D. (2017). The scientific Origins of National Socialism. Routledge.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315134789/scientific-origins-national-socialism-daniel-gasmanon Actor-Network Theory:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theoryon Bruno Latour:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Latouron John Bellamy Foster:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellamy_FosterBellamy, J. F. (2000) Marx’s Ecology. Materialism and Nature. Monthly Review Press.https://ia904504.us.archive.org/9/items/526394/John%20Bellamy%20Foster.%20Marx%27s%20Ecology..pdfon Kohei Saito:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohei_Saitoon Pietro Verri:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_VerriMarx, K. (1976). Capital. A Critique of Political Economy. Volume One. Penguin.https://www.surplusvalue.org.au/Marxism/Capital%20-%20Vol.%201%20Penguin.pdfMarx’s Theses on Feuerbach:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htmMarx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htmMarx’s and Engel’s German Ideology:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/Marx’s Capital Vol. 3.:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/Marx’s On The Jewish Question:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/on Alfred Sohn-Rethel:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sohn-RethelMachado, C. & Miguel, N. (2013). The Money of the Mind and the God of Commodities. The real abstraction according to Sohn-Rethel.https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/48961/1/MPRA_paper_48961.pdfon Donna Haraway:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Harawayon the “Special Period” in Cuba:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Periodon James Lovelock:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_LovelockLovelock, J. (1979). Gaia. A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press.https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gaia-9780198784883?cc=de&lang=en&#on “Social metabolism”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_metabolismon Raymond Williams:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_WilliamsSmele, J. D. (2016). The ‘Russian’ Civil Wars, 1916-1926. Ten Years that Shook the World. Hurst.https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-russian-civil-wars-1916-1926/Engel-Di Mauro, S. (2021). Socialist States and the Environment. Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures. Pluto Press.https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745340418/socialist-states-and-the-environment/Amin, S. (1990). Delinking. Towards a Polycentric World. Zed Books.https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/delinking-9780862328030/on material and energy flow accounting:see the chapter on that topic in:Bartelmus, P. (2008). Quantitative Eco-nomics. How sustainable are our economies. Springer.https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6966-6Zeug, W. (2025). INDEP talk with Walther Zeug: Democratic Economic Planning through Cybernetics & Holistic Accounting.https://youtu.be/I4_8_lDfwEw?si=J-kdRzjIehZqPgs0Kula, W. (2016). Measures and Men. Princeton University Press.https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691639079/measures-and-menEchterhölter, A. M. (2019). Quantification as Conflict. Witold Kula’s Political Metrology and Its Reception in the West . Historyka : studia metodologiczne, 49, 117-141 . Article 9.https://journals.pan.pl/Content/114031/PDF/7%20ECHTERH%C3%96LTER.pdfon Max Weber:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weberon Double-entry bookkeeping:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeepingon “proletarian science”:Moore, J.W. (2025). Nature and other dangerous words: Marx, method and the proletarian standpoint in the web of life. Dialectical Anthropology. 49, 149–167.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-025-09775-xon Ecosystem services:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_serviceon the “Ecological footprint” concept:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprinton Thomas Müntzer:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M%C3%BCntzeron the Royal Botanic Gardens/Kew Gardens:https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Botanic_Gardens_(Kew)on the Stakhanovite movement:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movementon Cybernetics:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberneticson Earth systems science:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_system_scienceSelcer, P. (2018). The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment. How the United Nations Built Spaceship Earth. Columbia University Press.https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-postwar-origins-of-the-global-environment/9780231166485/Medina, E. (2014). Cybernetic Revolutionaries. Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile. MIT Press.https://uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Eden_Medina_Cybernetic_Revolutionaries.pdfon Cybernetics in the Soviet Union:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics_in_the_Soviet_Unionon the Transitional demand:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitional_demandsee also:Trotsky’s The Transitional Program:https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/on the Green New Deal:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Dealon the European Green Deal:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Green_Dealon Geoengineering:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoengineeringon Johan Rockström:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rockstr%C3%B6mon Planetary boundaries:https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.htmlKlein, N. (2015). This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. the Climate. Penguin.https://thischangeseverything.org/book/Kushi, S., & Toft, M. D. (2022). Introducing the Military Intervention Project: A New Dataset on US Military Interventions, 1776–2019. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 67(4), 752-779.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027221117546on Allen Dulles:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Dulleson Reinhard Gehlen:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_GehlenTalbot, D. (2016). The Devil’s Chessboard. Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government. Harper Collins.https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-devils-chessboard-david-talbot?variant=32207669559330on the concept of the Deep State:Scott, P. D. (1996). Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. University of California Press.https://www.ucpress.edu/books/deep-politics-and-the-death-of-jfk/paperScott, P. D. (2017). The American Deep State. Big Money, Big Oil, and the Struggle for U.S. Democracy. Rowman & Littlefield.https://archive.org/details/americandeepstat0000scot/page/n5/mode/2upGood, A. (2022). American Exception. Empire and the Deep State. Skyhorse Publishing.https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510769144/american-exception/on the origin of the concept:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_state_in_Turkeyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susurluk_car_crashrecently released files relating to the assassination of JFK on the website of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release-2025on the current state of knowledge on the Nord Stream Pipeline Explosion:https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-is-known-about-nord-stream-gas-pipeline-explosions-2025-08-21/on the Nord Stream Pipeline Explosion releasing massive Amounts of Methane:https://youtu.be/7KBsf7bX9Nc?si=tDIxlFFF2ThO6Aebon Systems Dynamics:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_dynamicsthe ‘Limits to Growth’ Report, commissioned by the Club of Rome:https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/the Club of Rome:https://www.clubofrome.org/on Jay Wright Forrester:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forresteron the concept of the Anthropocene:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropoceneon James C. Scott:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._ScottMies, M. & Bennholdt-Thomsen, V. (1999). The Subsistence Perspective. Beyond the Globalised Economy. Zed Books.https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/subsistence-perspective-9781856497763/on the New Economic Policy (NEP):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policyon the Belt and Road Initiative:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_InitiativeNachmani, A. (1990). Civil War and Foreign Intervention in Greece: 1946-49. Journal of Contemporary History, 25(4), 489–522.https://www.jstor.org/stable/260759on the “Soft Coup against the Wilson Labour Government”:https://www.declassifieduk.org/a-possible-coup-against-the-labour-government/https://www.mi5.gov.uk/history/the-cold-war/the-wilson-plothttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/mar/15/comment.labour1on the actions of the US against North Korea in the Korean War:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_Korean_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_North_Koreahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_biological_warfare_in_the_Korean_Waron the Cultural Revolution:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolutionon Mao’s concept of the Mass Line:https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch11.htmon Jung’s concept of the Collective unconscious:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconsciouson (Neo-)Malthusianism:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MalthusianismEhrlich, P. R. (1971). The Population Bomb. Ballantine Books.http://pinguet.free.fr/ehrlich68.pdfTainter, J. A. (1988). The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press.https://www.sustainable.soltechdesigns.com/Joseph-A-Tainter-The-collapse-of-complex-societies.pdfon Millenarianism:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MillenarianismEnzensberger, H. M. (1978). Two Notes on the End of the World. New Left Review. I/110.https://newleftreview.org/issues/i110/articles/hans-magnus-enzensberger-two-notes-on-the-end-of-the-worldHansen, J. (2010). Storms of my Grandchildren. The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. Bloomsbury.https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/storms-of-my-grandchildren-9781408807460/Sweezy, P.M. (1990). Monopoly Capitalism. In: Eatwell, J., Milgate, M., Newman, P. (eds) Marxian Economics. Palgrave Macmillan.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-20572-1_44on Technofeudalism:Varoufakis, Y. (2024). Technofeudalism. What Killed Capitalism. Penguin.https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781529926095Durand, C. (2024). How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-feudalism. The Making of the Digital Economy. Verso.https://www.versobooks.com/products/2790-how-silicon-valley-unleashed-techno-feudalismCulture, Power and Politics Podcast episode on the debate around the concept “Technofeudalism”:https://culturepowerpolitics.org/2025/07/04/is-capitalism-over-the-technofeudalism-debate/Conservation International:https://www.conservation.org/Earth League International:https://earthleagueinternational.org/Rockström, J. et al. (2024). The Planetary Commons. A new Paradigm for Safeguarding Earth-regulating Systems in the Anthropocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301531121the Trilateral Commission:https://www.trilateral.org/the Earth Commission:https://earthcommission.org/Johan Rockström’s interview in the Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/29/johan-rockstrom-interview-breaking-boundaries-attenborough-biden Future Histories Episodes on Related TopicsS3E44 | Anna Kornbluh on Climate Counteraestheticshttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e44-anna-kornbluh-on-climate-counteraesthetics/S03E33 | Tadzio Müller zu solidarischem Preppen im Kollapshttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e33-tadzio-mueller-zu-solidarischem-preppen-im-kollaps/S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginarieshttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e30-matt-huber-kohei-saito-on-growth-progress-and-left-imaginaries/S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdownhttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e23-andreas-malm-on-overshooting-into-climate-breakdown/S03E19 | Wendy Brown on Socialist Governmentalityhttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e19-wendy-brown-on-socialist-governmentality/ ---If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:Democratic planning – an information websitehttps://www.democratic-planning.com/Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-constructionInternational Network for Democratic Economic Planninghttps://www.indep.network/Democratic Planning Research Platform:https://www.planningresearch.net/---Future Histories Contact & SupportIf you like Future Histories, please consider supporting us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistoriesContact: [email protected]: https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistoriesEnglish webpage:https://futurehistories-international.com Episode Keywords#JasonWMoore, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #PoliticalEconomy, #History, #Revolution, #Revolutions, #Ecology, #Environmental, #Colonialism, #Imperialism, #Capitalism, #Economics, #DeepState, #WorldEcology, #NatureSocietyDivide, #KarlMarx, #Socialism, #Cybernetics