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BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE POLITICAL
ECONOMY: SPERI RESEARCH & POLICY
Series Editors: Colin Hay and
Anthony Payne
ECOLOGICAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMY AND THE
SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL
CRISIS
Martin P.A. Craig

Building a Sustainable Political Economy:
SPERI Research & Policy
Series Editors
Colin Hay
University of Sheffield
Department of Politics
Sheffield, UK
Anthony Payne
Department of Politics
Sheffield, UK
Aims of the Series
The Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) is an innovation
in higher education research and outreach. It brings together leading
international researchers in the social sciences, policy makers, journalists
and opinion formers to reassess and develop proposals in response to the
political and economic issues posed by the current combination of financial
crisis, shifting economic power and environmental threat. Building a
Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy will serve as
a key outlet for SPERI's published work. Each title will summarise and
disseminate to an academic and postgraduate student audience, as well
as directly to policy-makers and journalists, key policy-oriented research
findings designed to further the development of a more sustainable future
for the national, regional and world economy following the global financial
crisis. It takes a holistic and interdisciplinary view of political economy in
which the local, national, regional and global interact at all times and in
complex ways. The SPERI research agenda, and hence the focus of the
series, seeks to explore the core economic and political questions that
require us to develop a new sustainable model of political economy.t at
all times and in complex ways. The SPERI research agenda, and hence
the focus of the series, seeks to explore the core economic and political
questions that require us to develop a new sustainable model of political
economy.
More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14879
Martin P.A. Craig
Ecological Political
Economy and the
Socio-Ecological
Crisis
Martin P.A. Craig
SPERI
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
United Kingdom
Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy

ISBN 978-3-319-40089-1 ISBN 978-3-319-40090-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40090-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956502
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For Barbara, greatly missed grandmother, without
whose support it would not have been possible.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction: Ecological Political Economy

and Socio-ecological Crisis 1
2 Two Conceptualisations of Socio-ecological Crisis 11
3 Diagnosing Socio-ecological Crisis 19
4 Prescribing Decisive Responses

to Socio-ecological Crisis 67
5 Conclusion: Towards an Ecological

Political Economy 115
Bibliography 125
Index 133
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 3.1 UK DMC and resource productivity 38

Fig. 3.2 Resource productivity: DMC vs. material footprints 39
Fig. 3.3 Material footprint resource productivity per
capita terms 40
Fig. 3.4 UK carbon emissions: domestic production
vs. carbon footprint 41
Fig. 3.5 Humankind’s land footprint 45
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Ecological Political Economy

and Socio-ecological Crisis
Abstract This chapter introduces the enterprise of ecological political

economy, locating it within the broader fields of political economy and
political ecology. In it, I begin to unpack the concept of ‘socio-ecolog-
ical crisis’, drawing particular attention to the medical roots of the term
‘crisis’: a moment in which a ‘decisive response’ marks the difference
between death or recovery. After considering what it means to speak of
socio-ecological crisis in these terms, I summarise the broader aims and
structure of the book.
Keywords Capitalism • Crisis • Decisive intervention • Ecological •

Environmental • Green growth • Green industrial strategy • Metabolic
rift • Policy • Political ecology • Political economy • Post-growth
• Socio-ecological • World ecology
I was inspired to write this book by the tensions between political econo-
mists and their environmentalist critics, which have become increasingly
visible in the troubled post-2008 economic context. The former, long
sceptical of the stifling neoliberal orthodoxy in contemporary economic
thought and emboldened by its very public humiliation in the events of
late 2008, have keenly set about re-establishing the relevance of some very
fundamental questions about capitalism and capitalist crisis.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 1

M.P.A. Craig, Ecological Political Economy and the Socio-Ecological
Crisis, Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research
& Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40090-7_1
2 M.P.A. CRAIG
For many, this means asking whether and how a new model of capitalism
will emerge from the malfunctioning wreckage of the boom years, and
whether or not this process might provide opportunities to politicise and
address the many social injustices and structural frailties that the neoliberal
ascendency has cemented. Lurking beneath these discussions, however, is
the assumption that the return of capitalist crisis will mark the beginning
of a transition to a new period of international accumulation and growth.
It is assumed, in other words, that capitalism will rise triumphant from a
crisis of its own making as it has done so many times before. Among the
optimists, there is also the belief that this new period of capitalist growth
may furnish progressive political movements with the opportunity to build
more stable, inclusive and just political economies than those which fol-
lowed the crisis of the 1970s.
It is these points of view that environmentalists have very effectively
problematised. The trouble with capitalism, they opine, is no longer (and
nor, really, has it ever been) confined to its tendencies towards instability
and distributional injustice. The capitalist crisis unfolding since 2008 has
also coincided with a moment of socio-ecological crisis, a moment in which
the orderly continuity of human societies is in jeopardy because their eco-
logical conditions of possibility are being undermined.
The best known symptom of this crisis is the accumulation of anthro-
pogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The close links between
economic growth, fossil fuel dependency and greenhouse gas emissions
form the basis of an environmentalist critique both of contemporary capi-
talism and of political economist’s frequent failure to fully think through
its socio-ecological dimensions and ecological consequences. They argue
that both capitalist societies and those who study them have paid insuffi-
cient attention to capitalism’s socio-ecological crisis tendencies, instead of
uncritically assuming capitalist economic growth to be inevitable, possible
and/or desirable.
Whilst the critique is not wide off the mark, it must be acknowledged
that there are political economists who have attempted to make exactly
the kind of reassessment that these environmentalist critics demand. Their
work, which spans many debates, literatures and theoretical perspectives,
is far from a coherent perspective. Yet collectively they can be said to bring
to bare a political economy perspective onto different aspects of socio-
ecological crisis—a perspective that highlights the unequal relationships of
power that infuse human societies and shape their development.
INTRODUCTION: ECOLOGICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY... 3
In doing so, however, they are forced to reconsider the traditional sub-
ject matter of political economy in a new light. Capitalism can no longer
be viewed simply as a way of organising human societies and their devel-
opment. Rather, it is also simultaneously a way of organising humanity’s
relationship to the rest of the natural world (Moore 2015).
I contend that this field of endeavour amongst political economists
ought to have a name. Whilst perhaps a prosaic choice, I feel that there is
merit in that name being ‘ecological political economy’. Why ecological?
First, because the issues that the field addresses overlap with those of ecol-
ogy: it attends to dynamics unfolding among the complex interdependent
ecosystems that together comprise the ‘biosphere’—the zone of life on
Earth.1 Second, because it extends ecology’s focus on the complex inter-
dependence of parts to include human societies and social dynamics, view-
ing these as an ontologically inseparable part of the biosphere. It therefore
highlights the ‘socio-ecological relations’ underpinning the societies that
it analyses. The obvious alternative label—‘environmental political econ-
omy’—carries neither implication, and thus, my preference for the label
ecological is primarily due its superior descriptive purchase.
To say that an issue, object or approach is ‘socio-ecological’ indicates a
disinclination to bracket ‘the social’ from ‘the natural’ as though the two
were free floating entities. This bracketing is a common but ultimately
obscuring tendency in environmentalist political discourse. Those objects
and processes that are ‘social’ (the social relationships that give form to
societies, their political economies and the processes of social continuity or
change unfolding within them) are grounded in the activities of an animal
that is a product of nature, and whose social activities are without excep-
tion subject to ecological conditions of possibility. It is this co-constitution
and interdependence of the social and the ecological that the term ‘socio-
ecological’ encompasses.
Throughout this book I use the term ‘socio-ecological relations’ to
denote both the ecological conditions of possibility of the forms of social
organisation to which I refer and their ecological implications. Those
already familiar with the environmental studies may detect a consider-
able overlap here with an existing academic enterprise: political ecology.
Political ecology is a post-disciplinary field (although one dominated by
human geographers) and broad perspective which apprehends various
issues of environmental studies in socio-ecological terms. It also attends to
many political economy themes by highlighting the unequal distribution
4 M.P.A. CRAIG
of power amongst people and species, and regards economic, political and
ecological development as reflective of this unequal distribution of power.
What, then, is the merit of the distinct label of ecological political
economy? To begin with, I must stress that I do not envision ecological
political economy as a separate enterprise to political ecology. The former
is, rather, a particular manifestation of the latter. Specifically, the label is
intended to denote a space in which political ecologists can enter into pro-
ductive dialogue with political economists whose research is less invested
in issues of ecology, and vice versa.
Such a space is important, and thus is useful for work built upon it to
have its own signifier within the broader realm of political ecology. Political
economists who are not political ecologists have a great deal of value to
add to the enterprise of political ecology. Many political-ecological debates
are conceptual ones that take place at a high level of abstraction and his-
torical generality. A range of political economy literatures, by contrast,
have taken a decisive turn to the contextualised study of contemporary
political-economic change. Whilst the former has much to teach us about
the nature of socio-ecological crisis, the latter has much to say about how
it might be resolved. Addressing these questions in tandem constitutes the
task of ecological political economy.
THE SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS CONFRONTING

CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES
My purpose in writing this book is to draw together a series of propos-
als for an ecological political economy research programme which asks
the following question: how can the socio-ecological crisis confronting
contemporary societies be decisively responded to and resolved by those
minded to do so? This deceptively simple question covers a multitude of
political-economic issues related to ‘diagnosis’ (understanding the nature
of socio-ecological crisis and specifying what ‘resolving’ it entails) and
‘prescription’ (proposals for strategies and policies through which a reso-
lution might be brought about).
Perhaps the most basic of these questions relates to the meaning of
the term ‘crisis’ itself. Talk of ‘crisis’ is so commonplace in news cover-
age and political debate that its meaning has become eroded. Its frequent
misappropriation perhaps reflects the rhetorical power of accusing one’s
political opponents of overseeing, or being embroiled in, a crisis. Yet the
excessively liberal use of the term has come at a cost: an indispensable ana-
lytical concept has been relegated to a mere synonym for scenario in which
the subject occupies a perilous position.
Whilst peril is certainly implied by the term, the distinctive meaning
and purchase of ‘crisis’ becomes clearer if we consider its medical etymo-
logical roots (Hay 1999). It denotes a moment at which the health of a
patient exhibiting symptoms of illness has deteriorated to a point where
the status quo becomes untenable and decisive intervention becomes nec-
essary if the patient is to survive. It is, in other words, the fork in the road
leading either to death or recovery. Worsening symptoms, the threat of
catastrophic breakdown, and the necessity of a decisive response in order
to avoid it are thus the hallmarks of crisis.
To say that contemporary societies are confronting socio-ecological cri-
sis is to say that symptoms of such crisis are present, and are worsening in
a way that threatens the survival of these societies. This is not necessarily
to say that human social life in totem faces the possibility of ‘death’ in the
same way that a patient does during a medical crisis, although there are
those that countenance the possibility that human life will indeed become
extinct if socio-ecological crisis is not decisively resolved (see, for instance,
Lynas 2008). Rather, it is to say that contemporary societies as we know
them today will not survive in a recognisable form. The failure to make
decisive intervention in the face of socio-ecological crisis entails rapid and
disorderly change, likely to comprise the displacement and collapse of
populations, massive geopolitical reconfigurations and the dissolution of
extant political, economic and cultural forms across the world in a manner
for which there is little recent historical precedent.
The non-survival of contemporary social life is one possible outcome
of socio-ecological crisis. Yet it is, thankfully, not the only one. Crisis also
marks a moment where a decisive response can bring about a very differ-
ent trajectory of travel. A decisive response also marks a change in the sta-
tus quo, but one that is conducive to the survival of human social life in a
recognisable form. It represents an orderly, less thorough-going and more
measured transformation. Beyond this broad criterion, however, a deci-
sive response could signal either very minor or very significant transfor-
mations of contemporary societies. The degree of transformation that is
required to qualify as a ‘decisive’ depends upon how the socio-ecological
crisis is diagnosed, a task with which the first two chapters of this book are
concerned.
6 M.P.A. CRAIG
It is helpful at this point to clarify the distinction between the term

socio-ecological crisis and two competing terms that are routinely used in
an overlapping, and often entirely synonymous sense. A socio-ecological
crisis is distinct from an ‘environmental crisis’ and an ‘ecological crisis’ by
virtue of being a crisis of and for the socio-ecological relations underpin-
ning a particular way of organising human societies. It implies that the
causes and perilous consequences of this crisis are simultaneously located
in the dynamics of a given form of human social organisation and the bio-
sphere from which its ecological conditions of possibility arise. Insofar as
capitalist societies are developing in a way that undermines their ecological
conditions of possibility, socio-ecological crisis obtains.
By contrast, the term ‘environmental crisis’ tends to conjure the image
of a crisis that is primarily of and for the material context in which human
societies are located. This is because it leaves implicit the role of, and con-
sequences for, human social organisation in this crisis. It implies that crisis
is something ‘done’ by human beings to a separate non-human ‘natu-
ral world’, whilst pushing to the background the relationships between
human social organisation and its development with these non-human
aspects of nature.
The term ‘ecological crisis’ is an improvement because its appeal to
ecology implies that the complex interdependence of parts as both the
subjects and objects of crisis. An ecological crisis is simultaneously one for
human beings and human social organisation as well as for non-human
species and the landscapes in which they live because these are all tied
together in socio-ecological relationships. Indeed, what I refer to as socio-
ecological crisis can be adequately accommodated within this term. Yet
I maintain that it is helpful to stipulate that the objects and subjects of
a socio-ecological crisis are the socio-ecological relations that underpin
human social organisation and which constitute its ecological conditions
of possibility. The term ‘socio-ecological crisis’ does this more effectively
than its two more commonly evoked competitors, and it is for this reason
that I adopt the term throughout this book.
By way of a final clarification, it is also important to maintain a distinc-
tion between the condition of socio-ecological crisis and its symptoms. As
is the case in human illnesses, it is possible to alleviate symptoms without
curing the underlying condition, with the result that different and more
deadly symptoms may emerge at a later date. The socio-ecological cri-
sis facing contemporary capitalist societies presents itself through many
symptoms. Among the most advanced of these are the accumulation of
greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss (Rockström et al. 2009).

Any one of these symptoms has the capacity to place the survival of con-
temporary societies in jeopardy if left to intensify indefinitely. Yet they
are symptomatic of an underlying condition, and it is this rather than the
symptoms that a decisive response to socio-ecological crisis must arrest.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

A vast number of questions, concepts and approaches are relevant to the
political economy of the socio-ecological crisis. An overview of them all is
far beyond the scope of this book. Instead, I have attempted to construct
a framework in which disparate political economists and political ecolo-
gists can locate their own work in relation to one another’s as part of the
broader enterprise of ecological political economy.
The various debates that touch upon socio-ecological crisis are often
cast at different ‘levels of generality’—that is, different degrees of spatial
and temporal scope in the subject matter and inferences under debate. At
one extreme, one finds literatures that address questions that are highly
specific to particular places and times. Prominent among them are those
regarding differences in the relative environmental performance of partic-
ular countries, as well as those that analyse the political and policy means
through which a decisive resolution of socio-ecological crisis could be
accomplished.
These accounts are predominantly concerned with prescriptions for the
decisive resolution of socio-ecological crisis. By contrast, those literatures
concerned with diagnostic questions regarding the nature and causes of
socio-ecological crisis are often cast at a higher level of generality, typically
focusing on those structural features that contemporary societies share.
Here we find the ‘big picture’ analyses that inquire after the relationship
between capitalism, economic growth and socio-ecological crisis.
Each level of generality constitutes a vantage point that makes certain
issues visible whilst obscuring others. A useful analogy with which to think
about this is that of a camera lens, which can be focused upon objects
located in either the foreground or background of a scene. To view the
whole picture through this lens it is necessary to take snapshots at differ-
ent focal settings, each of which offers greater detail of some aspects of the
scene whilst obscuring others. This is how I envision the work of differ-
ent ecological political economists working at different levels of generality
being drawn together to address the overarching question put above. For
8 M.P.A. CRAIG
this reason, each successive chapter of this book explores contemporary

societies and the socio-ecological crisis that they confront at a lower level
of generality than the last.
In the second chapter I adopt an extremely high level of generality, con-
sidering the socio-ecological relations and socio-ecological crisis tenden-
cies of all human societies regardless of their location in time and place. As
an approach to analysis, such a perspective obscures more than it reveals.
Yet it is a useful plane upon which to introduce the two overlapping con-
ceptualisations of socio-ecological crisis that I appeal to throughout the
remainder of the book: socio-ecological crisis as ‘metabolic rift’ and socio-
ecological crisis as exhausted socio-ecological relations.
The first of these conceptualisations equates socio-ecological crisis
with a rate of resource extraction/utilisation that exceeds the regenera-
tive capacity of the biosphere, the ‘impacts’ of which subsequently pose a
threat to the orderly reproduction of human societies (Foster et al. 2010).
The second of these conceptualisations encompasses the first whilst also
revealing distinct and more intractable aspects of socio-ecological crisis
that the first misses. It casts socio-ecological crisis as a scenario in which
a particular form of social organisation is no longer able to secure its eco-
logical conditions of possibility (Moore 2015). This latter form of crisis
need not manifest itself in readily discernible ecological ‘impacts’. Insofar
as barriers exist to re-establishing a social form’s ecological conditions of
possibility it is likely that a historically exceptional degree of social trans-
formation will be required if the crisis is to be decisively resolved. Thus the
degree to which the socio-ecological crisis facing contemporary societies
fits into either of these categories has a great bearing on the form that a
decisive response must take.
In Chap. 3 I refocus our analytical lens to draw into focus those
organisational and socio-ecological aspects that capitalist societies share.
I explore the relationship between capital accumulation and economic
growth, arguing the latter to be an inherent and necessary tendency in
capitalist political economies which follows from the inherent primacy
that they place upon capital accumulation. I then explore the relationship
between capitalist growth and a range of ecological impacts, before show-
ing how a socio-ecological approach allows us to move some way beyond
the ultimately intractable debate about the possibility ‘green growth’ that
divides technological optimists and pessimists in the field of environmental
studies.
To do so, I draw on the world ecology perspective, asking whether the

contemporary socio-ecological crisis indicates the exhaustion of capitalist
socio-ecological relations. I find the case for this to be plausible but as
yet incomplete, and argue that this avenue of inquiry is an urgent one for
ecological political economists. I conclude that a tendency towards socio-
ecological crisis is inherent to capitalism because the scale of production
is constantly driven to expand, and thus that a decisive response necessar-
ily implies moving to a post-growth (and therefore post-capitalist) form
of political economy (with ‘post-growth’ signifying a scale of production
that is constrained to ecologically sustainable limits, rather than a scale of
production that does not increase under any circumstances). However the
pace at which transition must be achieved is dependent upon the degree
to which contemporary capitalism’s socio-ecological relations are indeed
exhausted.
In the final chapter, I refocus our analytical lens to draw into focus
the structural diversity of contemporary capitalist societies in different
places. Here my focus moves from diagnosis to prescription. I ask how
the advocates of a decisive resolution of socio-ecological crisis might go
about accomplishing it in the diverse political-economic contexts that
they inhabit. To do so, I make the provisional assumption that the socio-
ecological crisis that confronts contemporary societies can be accommo-
dated by the narrower of the two conceptualisations just outlined. I do so
not to prejudge the debate addressed in Chap. 3, but rather because this
is the implicit assumption made in much of the existing literature with
which I engage. I argue that the chapter’s animating question requires a
framework for analysing political-economic change that is able to locate
the margin of manoeuvre for advocates of decisive intervention amid the
neoliberalising and financialising dynamics that characterise contemporary
capitalist restructuring. After critically engaging with the currently pre-
vailing market mechanisms of environmental governance in these terms,
I argue that a more thorough-going form of political-economic change
is required if capitalist political economies are to be rendered less eco-
logically impactful and set upon a path to post-growth political-economic
models. I explore the possibilities of ‘green industrial strategy’ as a means
to this end, emphasising the opportunities and constraints that contem-
porary capitalism poses to such a project. By way of a conclusion, I review
and reflect upon the major themes of the book.
10 M.P.A. CRAIG
NOTE
1. I use the term ‘biosphere’ here in a broad sense, denoting not simply plant
and animal life, but also the biophysical processes and relationships in which
they are enmeshed and upon which they depend and impact.
CHAPTER 2
Two Conceptualisations of Socio-ecological

Crisis
Abstract In this chapter I turn to the conceptualisation of socio-ecological

crisis. Different forms of social organisations have different ecological
‘conditions of possibility’. Socio-ecological crisis is a scenario in which
these conditions of possibility can no longer be secured. To capture this
in greater detail, I introduce two overlapping conceptualisations: socio-
ecological crisis as ‘metabolic rift’ and socio-ecological crisis as the exhaus-
tion of broader ‘socio-ecological relations’. I conclude that the second
conceptualisation holds purchase on a broader range of issues that the
first misses, describing a more intractable form of crisis with more expan-
sive implications for the fashioning of a decisive response. Consequently,
the question of which of these two conceptualisations best describes the
socio-ecological crisis that is confronting contemporary societies is of
great importance.
Keywords Fourteenth century • Capitalism • Crisis • Decisive interven-

tion • Ecological • Environmental • Metabolic rift • Political ecology •
Political economy • Social relations • Socio-ecological relations • Socio-
ecological • World ecology

& Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40090-7_2
12 M.P.A. CRAIG
In this chapter, our analytical lens is at its most extreme focal setting,
drawing into focus only those socio-ecological features that all human
societies share, regardless of their time or place. Such an extreme level of
generality makes for rather sparse subject matter, and the chapter is cor-
respondingly a rather short one. Vital detail is lost when one speaks in
terms of ‘human societies in general’: human societies are always located
in a spatial and temporal context, and these contextual details are pivotal
in shaping their socio-ecological crisis tendencies.
Yet this lofty height of generality does offer a useful vantage point from
which to illustrate the conceptualisations of socio-ecological crisis that I
appeal to throughout this book. My argument in this chapter is that there
are two distinct but overlapping ways of conceptualising and approach-
ing the idea of socio-ecological crisis found among literatures touching
upon the topic. Both, I suggest, offer a useful vocabulary with which to
approach the diagnosis of socio-ecological crisis confronting contempo-
rary societies.
By far, the most commonly invoked of the two identifies socio-
ecological crisis with the socio-ecological relations underpinning certain
physical ‘impacts’ of human activities upon the biosphere. These impacts
become symptoms of socio-ecological crisis when they come to threaten
the orderly reproduction of human societies. A prominent aspect of the
socio-ecological crisis confronting contemporary societies which can be
readily captured in these terms is entrenched fossil fuel use in the global
energy infrastructure. The symptom associated with this aspect of crisis is
the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a faster rate
than they are ‘cycled’ back into terrestrial sinks, which in turn, poses a
threat to the orderly reproduction of contemporary societies through the
effects of the resulting global warming. A sophisticated vocabulary with
which to capture such relations is found in the ‘metabolic rift’ perspective,
which I examine in the first section.
A second conceptualisation of socio-ecological crisis encompasses the
first, but also extends the condition to circumstances that the first neglects.
Instead of identifying socio-ecological crisis with discrete impacts and their
immediate underlying socio-ecological relationships, this second approach
focuses on the entirety of the socio-ecological relationships that sustain
the way in which a given society is organised—its ‘ecological conditions
of possibility’. From this perspective, socio-ecological crisis obtains when
these socio-ecological relationships become exhausted and are no longer
able to sustain the society’s present form of organisation. The symptoms
TWO CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS 13
of such a crisis need not manifest themselves in the form of biospheric

impacts (although they often do—global greenhouse gas accumulation,
for example, can be apprehended in these terms). Indeed, their socio-
ecological nature might not be immediately obvious at all. Yet they are no
less threatening to the orderly reproduction of human societies.
SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS AS ‘METABOLIC RIFT’

Much green thought is characterised by a juxtaposition between ‘nature’
on the one hand and ‘humanity’ or ‘society’ on the other. The basic prop-
osition is that an antagonistic relationship has emerged between the activi-
ties and purposes of human beings and the integrity of the biosphere that
they inhabit, with the former increasingly obtained at the expense of the
survival of plant and animal species and the integrity of the ecosystems
into which they are arranged.
In such analyses, humanity is inserted as a destabilising exogenous ele-
ment into a pre-existing and otherwise harmonious biosphere. The con-
clusion is that degradation will accelerate for as long as human activities
and purposes are not reformed (or if necessary, curtailed). It is a small step
to observe the dependence of human societies upon the same aspects of
the biosphere that they are degrading for the conclusion to be drawn that
humanity is confronting a socio-ecological crisis.
Despite the philosophically and scientifically dubious human exception-
alism that pervades such narratives there is nevertheless more than a little
truth to all of this.1 As a species, humankind is not unique in its ability to
transform landscapes and create pressures on other species. Yet the scale
and speed at which it does so is far in excess of any other life form on
Earth. In only a few millennia humankind has transformed the vast major-
ity of the Earth’s habitable surface from its various virgin states into farm-
land, urban area and commercial forest plantation (Giljum et al., 2013). A
useful first cut when conceptualising socio-ecological crisis is to ask what it
is, exactly, about human beings that makes them such a unique and potent
force of nature in this respect?
Human beings are marked out from most other species on the planet
by their ability to wilfully recombine elements of the rest of nature into
new arrangements, producing an almost infinite variety of products.
Moreover, human beings are animals that organise their productive activi-
ties socially, dividing labour tasks and the resulting output among one
another through the relationships of power and production that together
14 M.P.A. CRAIG
constitute a political economy. In doing so, they dramatically increase the

scale of production that is possible.
Human socially organised production drives a displacement of materi-
als between different domains of the biosphere. Resources are extracted in
the form of raw materials and food, acted upon in the process of produc-
ing things, and in both the act of production and consumption displaced
materials are deposited in the form of pollution, waste and stored goods.
This displacement of materials can be considered the root of the ‘impact’
of human socially organised production upon the biosphere.
Despite its negative connotation, the term, ‘impact’ does not neces-
sarily signify degradation. A diverse range of biophysical processes exist
whereby the materials displaced by various species are exchanged in regen-
erative cycles. These cyclical processes maintain, for example, the consis-
tency of air and the nutrients of soils.
These processes are ‘metabolic’ ones. Metabolism denotes the exchange
of materials between distinct systems, originating in the science of soil
nutrient cycles. The idea that human societies and their socio-ecological
relations could themselves be analysed in metabolic terms originates in
the work of Karl Marx, and has subsequently developed into a rich litera-
ture concerning capitalist society and socio-ecological crisis (Marx 2011;
Foster et al. 2010).
Central to this literature is the idea of ‘metabolic rift’: a scenario in
which the pace at which materials are displaced as a result of human socially
organised production exceeds the regenerative capacity of the biosphere to
absorb, cycle and regenerate (Foster et al. 2010). Marx’s original analysis
concerned the net extraction of soil nutrients that occurred as populations
became increasingly urbanised during the industrial revolution. He noted
that the human and animal waste that rural populations had previously
delivered back to the land for fertilisation was instead being concentrated
around urban areas or drained into the sea, a dynamic that would (all
other things being equal) cause food production in existing agricultural
areas to become increasingly difficult to sustain even as demand for food
increased.
Developing this analysis, Foster and his collaborators characterise the
roots of socio-ecological crises in terms of multiple metabolic rifts that
exist within the socio-ecological relations of contemporary societies. In
the case of greenhouse gas emissions accumulation, the rift in question is
the rate of emissions that exceeds the Earth’s atmospheric cycling capac-
ity, leading to a build-up of greenhouse gases with the potential to disrupt
numerous other biophysical processes upon which the orderly continuity

of human societies depend.
SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS AS EXHAUSTED

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL RELATIONS
From this perspective, socio-ecological crisis obtains wherever metabolic
rifts are present in a form that threatens the orderly continuity of human
societies. It persists for as long as these rifts remain, and can be decisively
addressed through their elimination. A more encompassing conceptualisa-
tion of socio-ecological crisis instead locates the condition in the broader
socio-ecological relations that are the conditions of possibility of a given
form of social organisation.
Central to understanding this more insidious form of socio-ecological
crisis is to grasp the political-ecological dictum that social relations are
always simultaneously socio-ecological ones. The way in which human soci-
eties are organised has, of course, varied greatly across time and space.
Contemporary capitalist societies embody very different social relations
to the myriad of other social forms that preceded them. A highly stylised
and non-exhaustive survey might include the ancient imperial oligarchies,
characterised by political economies in which labour power was extracted
from chattel slaves by their owners, or the feudal societies of medieval
Europe, in which a decentralised military elite possessed a legal entitle-
ment to the labour power of a mass of bonded serfs.
The political-ecological contention is that the social relations compris-
ing these and all other forms of social organisations are socio-ecological
ones because they presuppose certain ecological conditions of possibility
and certain ecological implications. A socio-ecological crisis occurs when
the socio-ecological relations underpinning a particular form of social
organisation become exhausted and are no longer able to sustain the social
relations that constitute it. We can think of metabolic rifts in these terms:
the burning of fossil fuels and the use of the atmosphere as a ‘sink’ for
greenhouse gas emissions has, hitherto, been a condition of possibility of
the expansion in global energy supply that underpins contemporary capi-
talist societies for reasons that are discussed at length in the next chapter.
Yet it is important to grasp that the exhaustion of socio-ecological rela-
tions need not take such a form. All that is necessary for socio-ecological
crisis to obtain is for the ecological conditions of possibility that once sus-
tained a form of social organisation to be absent. In the following chapter,
16 M.P.A. CRAIG
I shall explore a thesis that posits this to be the case of contemporary capitalist
societies. For now, and for the purposes of illustrating the preceding points, I
shall draw on an example that falls outside the historical purview of the pres-
ent book: the socio-ecological crisis of Western European feudal society.
Western European feudalism entered a period of crisis in the fourteenth
century, characterised by the breakdown of prevailing social relations
between the landowning aristocracy and a bonded serf peasantry (Moore
2003). The crisis is strongly linked with the outbreak of the Black Death,
the resulting decimation of the population, and a subsequent shift of soci-
etal power in favour of the now much reduced serf population as demand
for labour increased. The political barriers to re-establishing feudal social
relations in the form that they had existed prior to the onset of this crisis
proved insurmountable in the Western European context (although not
in others), and partly as a consequence of this, the late medieval and early
modern periods were characterised by the reconfiguration of social rela-
tions in a way that favoured the eventual emergence of a recognisably
capitalist form of social organisation and political economy.
In a socio-ecological restatement of the crisis of Western European
feudalism, Moore emphasises that the circumstances that gave rise to
the plague pandemic were in many respects endogenous to feudal soci-
ety, located in the environmental transformations that its socio-ecological
relations reinforced. The institution of serfdom saw social wealth distrib-
uted from a minority landowning elite to a majority population of bonded
labourers primarily in the form of access to means for subsistence agricul-
ture. Moore contends that this provided neither an incentive nor sufficient
means for the peasant majority to improve the land to which they were
tied. He places this among the factors driving a cycle of soil depletion on
arable land through which declining agricultural output led to the reclama-
tion of pasture land and forest for arable purposes, which was then, in turn,
subject to depletion. The resulting famines and malnutrition set the scene
for the rapid transmission of the Black Death, greatly amplifying its effects.
In this respect, an ecological condition of possibility of the social rela-
tionship between serf and lord was the presence of new frontiers of fertile
land through which serf labour power could be ‘reproduced’ (that is, the
bodies of peasants that supplied the labour power could be nourished and
made less susceptible to disease than would otherwise be the case). Yet
these relations, thought of as socio-ecological relations, had paradoxical
implications: over time feudal societies progressively exhausted their own
ecological conditions of possibility. In this sense, there was an essential
contradiction at the heart of feudal socio-ecological relations. Ultimately,

Western European feudalism’s socio-ecological crisis tendencies were
realised when the Black Death decimated the population and the subse-
quent political-economic conditions proved an insurmountable barrier to
the restoration of feudal social relations.
This all-too-stylised overview allows me to illustrate a number of impor-
tant principles in relation to this conceptualisation of socio-ecological crisis.
Firstly, the socio-ecological crisis of Western European feudalism was not
brought about by an encounter with ‘natural limits’ of the kind frequently
invoked in environmentalist discourse. Although such language holds
some purchase on the dynamic of land and soil depletion that underpinned
the crisis, it tends to obscure the way in which this rift was a historically
produced and historically particular phenomena: it was the product of,
and a crisis for, Western European feudal society and its socio-ecological
relations rather than for ‘human society in general’. The same farmland,
subject to different agricultural processes enmeshed in different forms of
social organisation, would later see historic rises in agricultural productivity.
Conversely, the crisis of Western European feudalism was not the result
of a straightforwardly ‘natural disaster’ and its social consequences. A
deadly pathogen moving along international trade routes was certainly a
major factor. Yet the Black Death (as opposed to the underlying pathogen)
was a historically particular and socio-ecological entity. In the Western
European context it was endogenous to feudal socio-ecological relations,
the product of their exhausted state and the degradation of land and serf
bodies that this had brought about. It is likely that the same disease would
have played out very differently under different social circumstances (as
indeed, it did in other parts of Europe).
What both of these points reinforce is that when conceived of in terms
of exhausted social relations, the form that socio-ecological crisis takes is
highly particular to the kind of social organisation that prevails in a given
time and place. Conditions that would prove an insurmountable socio-
ecological crisis for one form of social organisation need not register at
all for another. The same is therefore also true of decisive responses to
socio-ecological crisis, which consist in the restoration of these ecological
conditions of possibility. Such intervention was not achieved in the case of
Western European feudalism, and the result was a disorderly collapse of the
prevailing form of social organisation and the slow emergence of another.
Because the condition of socio-ecological crisis can only be understood
in relation to the form of social organisation to which it relates, there is
18 M.P.A. CRAIG
little more to be gained by continuing at the present very high level of

generality. If we are to grasp anything of significance in relation to the
socio-ecological crisis confronting contemporary societies, then it is neces-
sary to refocus our analytical lens to capture the socio-ecological relations
and crisis tendencies that are particular to them.
Despite their many differences, contemporary societies (with the exclu-
sion of certain outliers) contain an important commonality: they are char-
acterised by capitalist political economies through which socially organised
production is governed by the requirements of capital accumulation, and
are integrated into an international capitalist political economy. It is to the
socio-ecological relations and crisis tendencies of capitalism that the next
chapter turns.
NOTE
1. The idealised ‘state of nature’ underpinning them does not correspond to
scientific fact—in practice, the ecosystems that comprise the biosphere exist
in a state of dynamic flux rather than harmonious equilibrium, whilst ‘eco-
logical crisis’ (understood as the disorderly collapse of existing ecological
relationships) can occur without human intervention. Moreover, in a funda-
mental sense, human beings and the societies into which they are arranged
are natural forces as much as any other, and are thus better understood
within the broader socio-ecological relations that facilitate and constrain
human activities and purposes. For this reason, there has been growing
resistance among political ecologists to ‘dualist’ narratives of environmental
degradation that artificially hold ‘humanity’ and ‘nature’ as separate entities.
See, for instance, Moore (2015).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Foster, J.B., Clark, B. & York, R. (2010), The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on
the Earth (New York: Monthly Review Press).
Giljum, S. et al. (2013), Land Footprint Scenarios: A Report for Friends of the
Earth (Vienna: Sustainable Europe Research Institute), < https://www.foeeu-
rope.org/sites/default/files/seri_land_footprint_scenario_nov2013.pdf >
(retrieved 29/01/2016).
Marx, K. (2011), Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (London: Martino
Fine Books).
Moore, J.W. (2003), ‘Nature and the Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism’,
Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Centre, 26 (2), pp. 97–172.
Moore, J.W. (2015), Capitalism in the Web of Life (London: Verso).
CHAPTER 3
Diagnosing Socio-ecological Crisis
Abstract This chapter considers how the socio-ecological crisis con-

fronting contemporary societies might be diagnosed. I address the ways
in which these predominantly capitalist societies may be failing to secure
their ecological conditions of possibility, drawing upon the two concep-
tualisations of socio-ecological crisis outlined in the previous chapter
(crisis as metabolic rift, and crisis as exhausted socio-ecological relations)
in order to do so. I conclude that in either case a decisive response to
socio-ecological crisis necessarily implies moving to a post-growth form of
political economy, but that the pace at which transition happens depends
upon which of these two conceptualisations forms a better diagnosis of the
crisis confronting contemporary societies.
Keywords Asymmetrical co-dependence • Biodiversity loss • Capital accu-

mulation • Capitalism • Carbon footprint • Carbon • Circuits of capital •
Climate change • Crisis diagnosis • Crisis displacement • Crisis resolution
• Crisis • Decisive intervention • DMC • Domestic material consumption
• Ecological • Environmental • Foot print • Footprint • Global warming
• Green growth • Growth • Material footprint • Metabolic rift • Political
ecology • Political economy • Post-growth • Production • Regime • Social
relations • Social sustenance • Socio-ecological relations • Socio-ecological
• World ecology

& Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40090-7_3
20 M.P.A. CRAIG
In this chapter I have set our analytical lens to bring into focus those
political-economic and socio-ecological features that capitalist societies
share, regardless of their time and place. A number of important insights
and related avenues of research become visible at this level of generality,
each relating to the diagnosis of the socio-ecological crisis confronting
contemporary societies.
Perhaps the least controversial of these insights is that capitalist produc-
tion introduces a fraught dynamic into the socio-ecological relations of
contemporary societies. This fraught dynamic takes the form of an inherent
and necessary tendency towards an expanding scale of production, which is
a characteristic of capitalist political economies. In Section 2 I examine the
reasons for this expansionary dynamic, after which I devote the remainder
of the chapter to examining the relationship between expanding produc-
tion, biospheric impacts and socio-ecological crisis.
The relationship between expanding production and rising ecologi-
cal impacts under capitalism is, however, a complex one. This is because
technological and organisational changes in capitalist production have his-
torically shaped the ‘impact profile’ of individual capitalist industries and
capitalist production as a whole. On this basis, it is sometimes postulated
that these kinds of changes may eventually reverse the biospheric impacts
of capitalist production whilst still allowing the scale of production to go
on increasing—the ‘green growth’.
Debates concerning the possibility or impossibility of green growth
have a tendency to reach stalemate between optimistic and pessimistic
speculations about the technological and political challenges involved
amid the diminishing timescales left to meet them in. In remainder of
the chapter, I seek a way around this unproductive stalemate. Drawing
upon the broader conceptualisation of socio-ecological crisis explored in
the previous chapter—socio-ecological crisis as exhausted socio-ecological
relations—I ask whether a more historically informed perspective tends to
reinforce or undermine our confidence in the possibility of green growth
as a decisive response to capitalist socio-ecological crisis.
I argue that socio-ecological crisis is actually a recurrent condition
under capitalism. The very technological and organisational ‘fixes’ that
allow capitalist production to mitigate its impacts and/or restore ecologi-
cal conditions of possibility at one time are thereafter implicated in socio-
ecological crisis at a later date. The reason is that they allow the scale of
production to continue expanding, facilitating pressures on capitalism’s
ecological conditions of possibility at a future date. Apparently distinct
episodes of socio-ecological crisis are thus historically linked. On this basis,
DIAGNOSING SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS 21
I argue that capitalism’s socio-ecological crisis has never been decisively

resolved, but rather that it has been continually displaced in time and space.
Because a tendency towards an expanding scale of production is inherent
to capitalism, I argue that this dynamic of displacement can be expected
to continue indefinitely for as long as capitalism remains the form around
which socially organised production is organised in contemporary societies.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, I argue that socio-ecological
crisis is not simply displaced in time and space under capitalism, but that it
also tends to be re-encountered in more intense and less tractable forms.
This raises the possibility that a high degree of social transformation is
necessary if the socio-ecological crisis confronting contemporary societies
is to be decisively resolved.
In the final section, I return to the question of green growth in light
of these discussions. No evidence is sufficient completely to rebut the
entrenched optimist’s hope in future technological innovation as a pallia-
tive to socio-ecological crisis. I nevertheless maintain that even if it is true
that ‘innovation’ can rescue contemporary societies from their present
encounter with socio-ecological crisis, the progressive intensification of
subsequent re-encounters will make this an instance of crisis displacement
rather than decisive resolution. For this reason, I draw the conclusion that
a decisive response to the socio-ecological crisis confronting contempo-
rary societies is very likely to involve a transition to a ‘post-growth’ form
of political economy, with the necessary timing of the transition depen-
dent upon whether or not the present encounter with socio-ecological
crisis is indeed characterised by exhausted socio-ecological relations.
I begin, however, by outlining the general features of capitalism, upon
which all of these arguments turn.
WHAT IS A CAPITALIST SOCIETY?

In a recent intervention, Streeck has offered a disarmingly succinct defi-
nition of a capitalist society. It is a society that has “instituted its econ-
omy in a capitalist manner”, meaning that it has “[coupled its] material
provision to private accumulation of capital… [and thus depends] for
sustenance on successful accumulation of privately appropriated capital”
(Streeck 2012, p. 2).
Among other implications, this definition proposes that a capitalist
society is characterised by a political economy in which the ‘accumula-
tion of capital’ (or in more conventional parlance, ‘profit making’) is the
organising force of economic life, shaping what is produced, how and in
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§. 11. Of the Worms of the Spindle.
I promised at the latter end of Numb. 2. to give a more copious
account than there I did of making Worms, when I came to exercise
upon Printing-Press Spindles; and being now arrived to it, I shall
here make good my promise.
¶. 1. The Worms for Printing-Press Spindles must be projected

with such a declivity, as that they may come down at an
assigned progress of the Bar.
The assigned progress may be various, and yet the Spindle do its
office: For if the Cheeks of the Press stand wide assunder, the
sweep or progress of the same Bar will be greater than if they stand
nearer together.
It is confirm’d upon good consideration and Reason as well as
constant experience, that in a whole Revolution of the Spindle, in the
Nut, the Toe does and ought to come down two Inches and an half;
but the Spindle in work seldom makes above one quarter of a
Revolution at one Pull, in which sweep it comes down but half an
Inch and half a quarter of an Inch; and the reason to be given for this
coming down, is the squeezing of the several parts in the Press,
subject to squeeze between the Mortesses of the Winter and the
Mortesses the Head works in; and every Joynt between these are
subject to squeeze by the force of a Pull. As first, The Winter may
squeeze down into its Mortess one third part of the thickness of a
Scabbord. (Allowing a Scabbord to be half a Nomparel thick.)
Secondly, The Ribs squeeze closer to the Winter one Scabbord.
Thirdly, The Iron-Ribs to the Wooden Ribs one Scabbord. Fourthly,
The Cramp-Irons to the Planck of the Coffin one Scabbord. Fifthly,
The Planck it self half a Scabbord. Sixthly, The Stone to the Planck
one Scabbord. Seventhly, The Form to the Stone half a Scabbord.
Eighthly, The Justifyers in the Mortess of the Head three Scabbords.
Ninthly, The Nut in the Head one Scabbord. Tenthly, The Paper,
Tympans and Blankets two Scabbords. Eleventhly, Play for the Irons
of the Tympans four Scabbords. Altogether make fifteen Scabbords
and one third part of a Scabbord thick, which (as aforesaid) by
allowing two Scabbords to make a Nomparel, and as I shewed in
Vol. 2. Numb. 2. §. 2. One hundred and fifty Nomparels to make one
Foot, gives twelve and an half Nomparels for an Inch, and
consequently twenty five Scabbords for an Inch; so by proportion,
fifteen Scabbords and one third part of a Scabbord, gives five eighth
parts of an Inch, and a very small matter more, which is just so much
as the Toe of the Spindle comes down in a quarter of a Revolution.
This is the Reason that the coming down of the Toe ought to be just
thus much; for should it be less, the natural Spring that all these
Joynts have, when they are unsqueez’d, would mount the Irons of
the Tympans so high, that it would be troublesom and tedious for the
Press-man to Run them under the Plattin, unless the Cheeks stood
wider assunder, and consequently every sweep of the Bar in a Pull
exceed a quarter of a Revolution, which would be both laborious for
the Press-man, and would hinder his usual riddance of Work.
I shew’d in Numb. 2. fol. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. the manner of making a
Screw in general; but assigned it no particular Rise; which for the
aforesaid reason, these Printing-Press Screws are strictly bound to
have: Therefore its assigned Rise being two Inches and an half in a
Revolution, This measure must be set off upon the Cilindrick Shank,
from the top towards the Cube of the Spindle, on any part of the
Cilinder, and there make a small mark with a fine Prick-Punch, and
in an exact Perpendicular to this mark make another small mark on
the top of the Cilinder, and laying a straight Ruler on these two
marks, draw a straight line through them, and continue that line
almost as low as the Cube of the Spindle. Then devide that portion
of the straight line contained between the two marks into eight equal
parts, and set off those equal parts from the two Inch and half mark
upwards, and then downwards in the line so oft as you can: Devide
also the Circumference of the Shank of the Cilinder into eight equal
parts, and draw straight lines through each devision, parallel to the
first upright line; and describe the Screw as you were directed in the
afore-quoted place; so will you find that the revolution of every line
so carried on about the Shank of the Cilinder, will be just two Inches
and an half off the top of the Shank: which measure and manner of
working may be continued downward to within an Inch and an half of
the Cube of the Spindle. This is the Rule and Measure that ought to
be observ’d for ordinary Presses: But if for some by-reasons the
aforesaid Measure of two Inches and an half must be varied, then
the varied Measure must be set off from the top of the Cilinder, and
working with that varied Measure as hath been directed, the Toe of
the Spindle will come down lower in a revolution if the varied
Measure be longer, or not so low if the varied Measure be shorter.
There is a Notion vulgarly accepted among Workmen, that the
Spindle will Rise more or less for the number of Worms winding
about the Cilinder; for they think, or at least by tradition are taught to
say, that a Three-Worm’d Spindle comes faster and lower down than
a four-Worm’d Spindle: But the opinion is false; for if a Spindle were
made but with a Single-Worm, and should have this Measure, viz.
Two Inches and an half set off from the top, and a Worm cut to make
a Revolution to this Measure, it would come down just as fast, and
as low, as if there were two, three, four, five or six Worms, &c. cut in
the same Measure: For indeed, the numbers of Worms are only
made to preserve the Worms of the Spindle and Nut from wearing
each other out the faster; for if the whole stress of a Pull should bear
against the Sholder of a single Worm, it would wear and shake in the
Nut sooner by half than if the stress should be borne by the Sholders
of two Worms; and so proportionably for three, four, five Worms, &c.
But the reason why four Worms are generally made upon the
Spindle, is because the Diameters of the Spindle are generally of
this propos’d size; and therefore a convenient strength of Mettal may
be had on this size for four Worms; But should the Diameter of the
Spindle be smaller, as they sometimes are when the Press is
designed for small Work, only three Worms will be a properer
number than four; because when the Diameter is small, the
thickness of the Worms would also prove small, and by the stress of
a Pull would be more subject to break or tear the Worms either of the
Spindle or Nut.
And thus I hope I have performed the promise here I made at the
latter end of Numb. 2. Whither I refer you for the breadth, and reason
of the breadth of the Worm.
¶. 13. Of the Bar marked B in Plate 8.
This Bar is Iron, containing in length about two Foot eight Inches and
an half, from a to b, and its greatest thickness, except the Sholder,
an Inch and a quarter; The end a hath a Male-Screw about an Inch
Diameter and an Inch long, to which a Nut with a Female-Screw in it
as at C is fitted. The Iron Nut in which this Female-Screw is made,
must be very strong, viz. at least an Inch thick, and an Inch and three
quarters in Diameter; in two opposite sides of it is made two Ears,
which must also be very strong, because they must with heavy blows
be knock’t upon to draw the Sholder of the square shank on the Bar,
when the square Pin is in the Eye of the Spindle close and steddy up
to the Cube on the Spindle. The square Pin of the Bar marked c is
made to fit just into the Eye, through the middle of the Cube of the
Spindle, on the hither end of this square Pin is made a Sholder or
stop to this square Pin, as at d. This Sholder must be Filed exactly
Flat on all its four insides, that they may be drawn close and tight up
to any flat side of the Cube on the Spindle; It is two Inches square,
that it may be drawn the firmer, and stop the steddyer against any of
the flat sides of the said Cube, when it is hard drawn by the strength
of the Female-Screw in the aforesaid Nut at C. The thickness from d
to e of this Sholder is about three quarters of an Inch, and is Bevil’d
off towards the Handle of the Bar with a small Molding.
The substance of this Bar, as aforesaid, is about an Inch and a
quarter; but its Corners are all the way slatted down till within five
Inches of the end: And from these five Inches to the end, it is taper’d
away, that the Wooden-Handle may be the stronger forced and
fastned upon it.
About four Inches off the Sholder, the Bar is bowed beyond a right
Angle, yet not with an Angle, but a Bow, which therefore lies ready to
the Press-man’s Hand, that he may Catch at it to draw the Wooden-
Handle of the Bar within his reach.
This Wooden-Handle with long Working grows oft loose; but then it is
with hard blows on the end of it forced on again, which oft splits the
Wooden-Handle and loosens the square Pin at the other end of the
Bar, in the Eye of the Spindle: To remedy which inconvenience, I
used this Help, viz. To weld a piece of a Curtain-Rod as long as the
Wooden-Handle of the Bar, to the end of the Iron Bar, and made a
Male-screw at the other end with a Female-screw to fit it; Then I
bored an hole quite through the Wooden-Handle, and Turn’d the
very end of the Wooden-Handle with a small hollow in it flat at the
bottom, and deep enough to bury the Iron-Nut on the end of the
Curtain-Rod, and when this Curtain-Rod was put through the Hollow
in the Wooden-Handle and Screwed fast to it at the end, it kept the
Wooden-Handle, from flying off; Or if it loosened, by twisting the Nut
once or twice more about, it was fastned again.
¶. 14. Of the Hose, Garter, and Hose-Hooks.
The Hose are the upright Irons in Plate 8. at a a, They are about
three quarters of an Inch square, both their ends have Male-screws
on them; The lower end is fitted into a square Hole made at the
parting of the Hose-Hooks, which by a square Nut with a Female-
screw in it, is Screwed tight up to them; Their upper ends are let into
square Holes made at the ends of the Garter, and by Nuts with
Female-Screws in them, and Ears to turn them about as at l l are
drawn up higher, if the Plattin-Cords are too loose; or else let down
lower if they are too tight: These upper Screws are called the Hose-
Screws.
The Garter (but more properly the Coller) marked b b, is the round
Hoop incompassing the flat Groove or Neck in the Shank of the
Spindle at e e; This round Hoop is made of two half-round Hoops,
having in a Diametrical-line without the Hoop square Irons of the
same piece proceeding from them, and standing out as far as g g,
These Irons are so let into each other, that they comply and run
Range with the square Sholders at both ends, wherein square Holes
are made at the ends of the Hose. They are Screwed together with
two small Screws, as at h h.
The four Hose-Hooks are marked i i i i, They proceed from two
Branches of an Iron Hoop at k encompassing the lower end of the
Spindle, on either Corner of the Branch, and have notches filled in
their outer-sides as in the Figure, which notches are to contain
several Turns of Whip-cord in each notch, which Whip-cord being
also fastned to the Hooks on the Plattin, holds the Plattin tight to the
Hooks of the Hose.
¶. 15. Of the Ribs, and Cramp-Irons.
The Ribs are delineated in Plate 8. at E, they are made of four

square Irons the length of the Wooden-Ribs and End-Rails, viz. four
Foot five Inches long, and three quarters of an Inch square, only one
end is batter’d to about a quarter of an Inch thick, and about two
Inches and an half broad, in which battering four or five holes are
Punch’t for the nailing it down to the Hind-Rail of the Wooden-Ribs.
The Fore-end is also batter’d down as the Hind-end, but bound
downwards to a square, that it may be nailed down on the outer-side
of the Fore-Rail of the Wooden-Ribs.
Into the bottom of these Ribs, within nine Inches of the middle, on
either side is made two Female-Duftails about three quarters of an
Inch broad, and half a quarter of an Inch thick, which Female-Duftails
have Male-Duftails as at a a a a fitted stiff into them, about an Inch
and three quarters long; and these Male-Duftails have an hole
punched at either end, that when they are fitted into the Female-
Duftails in the Ribs, they may in these Holes be Nailed down the
firmer to the Wooden-Ribs.
Plate 9.
These Ribs are to be between the upper and the under-side exactly
of an equal thickness, and both to lye exactly Horizontal in straight
lines; For irregularities will both Mount and Sink the Cramp-Irons,
and make them Run rumbling upon the Ribs.
The upper-sides of these Ribs must be purely Smooth-fil’d and
Pollish’d, and the edges a little Bevil’d roundish away, that they may
be somewhat Arching at the top; because then the Cramp-Irons Run
more easily and ticklishly over them.
The Cramp-Irons are marked F in Plate 8. They are an Inch and an
half long besides the Battering down at both ends as the Ribs were;
They have three holes Punched in each Battering down, to Nail them
to the Planck of the Coffin; They are about half an Inch deep, and
one quarter and an half thick; their upper-sides are smoothed and
rounded away as the Ribs.
¶. 16. Of the Spindle for the Rounce, described in Plate 9. at a.
The Axis or Spindle is a straight Bar of Iron about three quarters of

an Inch square, and is about three Inches longer than the whole
breadth of the Frame of the Ribs, viz. two Foot two Inches: The
farther end of it is Filed to a round Pin (as at a) three quarters of an
Inch long, and three quarters of an Inch in Diameter; the hither end is
filed away to such another round Pin, but is two Inches and a quarter
long (as at b); at an Inch and a quarter from this end is Filed a
Square Pin three quarters of an Inch long, and within half an Inch of
the end is Filed another round Pin, which hath another Male-Screw
on it, to which is fitted a square Iron Nut with a Female-Screw in it.
On the Square Pin is fitted a Winch somewhat in form like a Jack-
winch, but much stronger; the Eye of which is fitted upon the Square
aforesaid, and Screwed up tight with a Female-Screw. On the
straight Shank of this Winch is fitted the Rounce, marked e.
The round ends of this Axis are hung up in two Iron-Sockets (as at c
c) fastned with Nails (but more properly with Screws) on the outside
the Wooden Frame of the Ribs.
The Girt-Barrel marked d is Turned of a Piece of Maple or Alder-
wood, of such a length, that it may play easily between the two
Wooden Ribs; and of such a diameter, that in one revolution of it,
such a length of Girt may wind about it as shall be equal to half the
length contained between the fore-end Iron of the Tympan, and the
inside of the Rail of the Inner-Tympan; because two Revolutions of
this Barrel must move the Carriage this length of space.
This Barrel is fitted and fastned upon the Iron Axis, at such a
distance from either end, that it may move round between the
Wooden Ribs aforesaid.
¶. 17. Of the Press-Stone.
The Press-Stone should be Marble, though sometimes Master

Printers make shift with Purbeck, either because they can buy them
cheaper, or else because they can neither distinguish them by their
appearance, or know their different worths.
Its thickness must be all the way throughout equal, and ought to be
within one half quarter of an Inch the depth of the inside of the
Coffin; because the matter it is Bedded in will raise it high enough.
Its length and breadth must be about half an Inch less than the
length and breadth of the inside of the Coffin: Because Justifiers of
Wood, the length of every side, and almost the depth of the Stone,
must be thrust between the insides of the Coffin and the outsides of
the Stone, to Wedge it tight and steddy in its place, after the Press-
man has Bedded it. Its upper-side, or Face must be exactly straight
and smooth.
I have given you this description of the Press-Stone, because they
are thus generally used in all Printing-Houses: But I have had so
much trouble, charge and vexation with the often breaking of Stones,
either through the carelesness or unskilfulness (or both) of Press-
men, that necessity compell’d me to consider how I might leave them
off; and now by long experience I have found, that a piece of
Lignum-vitæ of the same size, and truly wrought, performs the office
of a Stone in all respects as well as a Stone, and eases my mind, of
the trouble, charge and vexation aforesaid, though the first cost of it
be greater.
¶. 18. Of the Plattin marked d in Plate 9.
The Plattin is commonly made of Beechen-Planck, two Inches and

an half thick, its length about fourteen Inches, and its breadth about
nine Inches. Its sides are Tryed Square, and the Face or under-side
of the Plattin Plained exactly straight and smooth. Near the four
Corners on the upper-side, it hath four Iron Hooks as at a a a a,
whose Shanks are Wormed in.
In the middle of the upper-side is let in and fastned an Iron Plate
called the Plattin-Plate, as b b b b, a quarter of an Inch thick, six
Inches long, and four Inches broad; in the middle of this Plate is
made a square Iron Frame about half an Inch high, and half an Inch
broad, as at c. Into this square Frame is fitted the Stud of the Plattin
Pan, so as it may stand steddy, and yet to be taken out and put in as
occasion may require.
The Stud marked d, is about an Inch thick, and then spreads wider
and wider to the top (at e e e e) of it, till it becomes about two Inches
and an half wide; and the sides of this spreading being but about half
a quarter of an Inch thick makes the Pan. In the middle of the bottom
of this Pan is a small Center hole Punch’d for the Toe of the Spindle
to work in.
¶. 19. Of the Points and Point-Screws.
The Points are made of Iron Plates about the thickness of a Queen
Elizabeth Shilling: It is delineated at e in Plate 9. which is sufficient to
shew the shape of it, at the end of this Plate, as at a, stands upright
the Point. This Point is made of a piece of small Wyer about a
quarter and half quarter of an Inch high, and hath its lower end Filed
away to a small Shank about twice the length of the thickness of the
Plate; so that a Sholder may remain. This small Shank is fitted into a
small Hole made near the end of the Plate, and Revetted on the
other side, as was taught Numb. 2. Fol. 24. At the other end of the
Plate is filed a long square notch in the Plate as at b c quarter and
half quarter Inch wide, to receive the square shank of the Point-
Screws.
The Point-Screw marked f is made of Iron; It hath a thin Head about
an Inch square, And a square Shank just under the Head, an Inch
deep, and almost quarter and half quarter Inch square, that the
square Notch in the hinder end of the Plate may slide on it from end
to end of the Notch; Under this square Shank is a round Pin filed
with a Male-Screw upon it, to which is fitted a Nut with a Female-
Screw in it, and Ears on its outside to twist about, and draw the Head
of the Shank close down to the Tympan, and so hold the Point-Plate
fast in its Place.
¶. 20. Of the Hammer, described at h, and Sheeps-Foot

described at i in Plate 9.
The Hammer is a common Hammer about a quarter of a Pound

weight; It hath no Claws but a Pen, which stands the Press-man
instead when the Chase proves so big, that he is forced to use small
Quoins.
The Figure of the Sheeps-Foot is description sufficient. Its use is to
nail and un-nail the Balls.
The Sheeps-Foot is all made of Iron, with an Hammer-head at one
end, to drive the Ball-Nails into the Ball-Stocks, and a Claw at the
other end, to draw the Ball-Nails out of the Ball-Stocks.
¶. 21. Of the Foot-step, Girts, Stay of the Carriage, Stay of the
Frisket, Ball-Stocks,
Paper-Bench, Lye-Trough, Lye-Brush, Lye-Kettle, Tray to wet
Paper
in, Weights to Press Paper, Pelts, or Leather, Wool or Hair, Ball-
Nails or Pumping-Nails.
The Foot-Step is an Inch-Board about a Foot broad, and sixteen

Inches long. This Board is nailed upon a piece of Timber about
seven or eight Inches high, and is Bevil’d away on its upper-side, as
is also the Board on its under-side at its hither end, that the Board
may stand aslope upon the Floor. It is placed fast on the Floor under
the Carriage of the Press. Its Office shall be shewed when we come
to treat of Exercise of the Press-man.
Girts are Thongs of Leather, cut out of the Back of an Horse-hide, or
a Bulls hide, sometimes an Hogs-hide. They are about an Inch and
an half, or an Inch and three quarters broad. Two of them are used
to carry the Carriage out and in. These two have each of them one of
their ends nailed to the Barrel on the Spindle of the Rounce, and the
other ends nailed to the Barrel behind the Carriage in the Planck of
the Coffin, and to the Barrel on the fore-end of the Frame of the
Coffin.
The Stay of the Carriage is sometimes a piece of the same Girt
fastned to the outside of the further Cheek, and to the further hinder
side of the Frame of the Carriage. It is fastned at such a length by
the Press-man, that the Carriage may ride so far out, as that the
Irons of the Tympan may just rise free and clear off the fore-side of
the Plattin.
Another way to stay the Carriage is to let an Iron Pin into the upper-
side of the further Rail of the Frame of the Ribs, just in the place
where the further hinder Rail of the Carriage stands projecting over
the Rib-Rail, when the Iron of the Tympan may just rise free from the
Fore-side of the Plattin; for then that projecting will stop against the
Iron Pin.
The Stay of the Frisket is made by fastning a Batten upon the middle
of the Top-side of the Cap, and by fastning a Batten to the former
Batten perpendicularly downwards, just at such a distance, that the
upper-side of the Frisket may stop against it when it is turned up just
a little beyond a Perpendicular. When a Press stands at a convenient
distance from a Wall, that Wall performs the office of the aforesaid
Stay.
Ball-Stocks are Turn’d of Alder or Maple. Their Shape is delineated
in Plate 9. at g: They are about seven Inches in Diameter, and have
their under-side Turned hollow, to contain the greater quantity of
Wool or Hair, to keep the Ball-Leathers plump the longer.
The Lye-Trough (delineated in Plate 9. at k) is a Square Trough
made of Inch-Boards, about four Inches deep, two Foot four Inches
long, and one Foot nine Inches broad, and flat in the Bottom. Its
inside is Leaded with Sheet-Lead, which reaches up over the upper
Edges of the Trough. In the middle of the two ends (for so I call the
shortest sides) on the outer-sides as a a, is fastned a round Iron Pin,
which moves in a round hole made in an Iron Stud with a square
Sprig under it, to be drove and fastned into a Wooden Horse, which
Horse I need not describe, because in Plate aforesaid I have given
you the Figure of it.
The Paper-Bench is only a common Bench about three Foot eight
Inches long, one Foot eight Inches broad, and three Foot four Inches
high.
The Lye-Brush is made of Hogs-Bristles fastned into a Board with
Brass-Wyer, for durance sake: Its Board is commonly about nine
Inches long, and four and an half Inches broad; and the length of the
Bristles about three Inches.
To perform the Office of a Lye-Kettle (which commonly holds about
three Gallons) the old-fashion’d Chafers are most commodious, as
well because they are more handy and manageable than Kettles
with Bails, as also because they keep Lye longer hot.
The Tray to Wet Paper in is only a common Butchers Tray, large
enough to Wet the largest Paper in.
The Weight to Press Paper with, is either Mettal, or Stone, flat on the
Bottom, to ly steddy on the Paper-Board: It must be about 50 or 60
pound weight.
For Pelts or Leather, Ball-Nails or Pumping-Nails, Wool or Hair,
Vellom or Parchment or Forrel, the Press-man generally eases the
Master-Printer of the trouble of choosing, though not the charge of
paying for them: And for Paste, Sallad Oyl, and such accidental
Requisites as the Press-man in his work may want, the Devil
commonly fetches for him.
¶. 22. Of Racks to Hang Paper on, and of the Peel.
Our Master-Printer must provide Racks to hang Paper on to Dry.

They are made of Deal-board Battens, square, an Inch thick, and an
Inch and an half deep, and the length the whole length of the Deal,
which is commonly about ten or eleven Foot long, or else so long as
the convenience of the Room will allow: The two upper corners of
these Rails are rounded off that they may not mark the Paper.
These Racks are Hung over Head, either in the Printing-House, or
Ware-house, or both, or any other Room that is most convenient to
Dry Paper in; they are hung athwart two Rails an Inch thick, and
about three or four Inches deep, which Rails are fastned to some
Joysts or other Timber in the Ceiling by Stiles perpendicular to the
Ceiling; These Rails stand so wide assunder, that each end of the
Racks may hang beyond them about the distance of two Foot, and
have on their upper edge at ten Inches distance from one another,
so many square Notches cut into them as the whole length of the
Rail will bear; Into these square notches the Racks are laid parallel
to each other with the flat side downwards, and the Rounded off side
upwards.
The Peel is described in Plate 9. at l, which Figure sufficiently shews
what it is; And therefore I shall need say no more to it, only its
Handle may be longer or shorter according as the height of the
Room it is to be used in may require.
¶. 23. Of Inck.
The providing of good Inck, or rather good Varnish for Inck, is none
of the least incumbent cares upon our Master-Printer, though
Custom has almost made it so here in England; for the process of
making Inck being as well laborious to the Body, as noysom and
ungrateful to the Sence, and by several odd accidents dangerous of
Firing the Place it is made in, Our English Master-Printers do
generally discharge themselves of that trouble; and instead of having
good Inck, content themselves that they pay an Inck-maker for good
Inck, which may yet be better or worse according to the Conscience
of the Inck-maker.
That our Neighbours the Hollanders who exhibit Patterns of good
Printing to all the World, are careful and industrious in all the
circumstances of good Printing, is very notorious to all Book-men;
yet should they content themselves with such Inck as we do, their
Work would appear notwithstanding the other circumstances they
observe, far less graceful than it does, as well as ours would appear
more beautiful if we used such Inck as they do: for there is many
Reasons, considering how the Inck is made with us and with them,
why their Inck must needs be better than ours. As First, They make
theirs all of good old Linseed-Oyl alone, and perhaps a little Rosin in
it sometimes, when as our Inck-makers to save charges mingle
many times Trane-Oyl among theirs, and a great deal of Rosin;
which Trane-Oyl by its grossness, Furs and Choaks up a Form, and
by its fatness hinders the Inck from drying; so that when the Work
comes to the Binders, it Sets off; and besides is dull, smeary and
unpleasant to the Eye. And the Rosin if too great a quantity be put in,
and the Form be not very Lean Beaten, makes the Inck turn yellow:
And the same does New Linseed-Oyl.
Secondly, They seldom Boyl or Burn it to that consistence the
Hollanders do, because they not only save labour and Fewel, but
have a greater weight of Inck out of the same quantity of Oyl when
less Burnt away than when more Burnt away; which want of Burning
makes the Inck also, though made of good old Linseed-Oyl Fat and
Smeary, and hinders its Drying; so that when it comes to the Binders
it also Sets off.
Thirdly, They do not use that way of clearing their Inck the
Hollanders do, or indeed any other way than meer Burning it,
whereby the Inck remains more Oyly and Greasie than if it were well
clarified.
Fourthly, They to save the Press-man the labour of Rubbing the
Blacking into Varnish on the Inck-Block, Boyl the Blacking in the
Varnish, or at least put the Blacking in whilst the Varnish is yet
Boyling-hot, which so Burns and Rubifies the Blacking, that it loses
much of its brisk and vivid black complexion.
Fifthly, Because Blacking is dear, and adds little to the weight of
Inck, they stint themselves to a quantity which they exceed not; so
that sometimes the Inck proves so unsufferable Pale, that the Press-
man is forc’d to Rub in more Blacking upon the Block; yet this he is
often so loth to do, that he will rather hazard the content the Colour
shall give, than take the pains to amend it: satisfying himself that he
can lay the blame upon the Inck-maker.
Having thus hinted at the difference between the Dutch and English
Inck, I shall now give you the Receipt and manner of making the
Dutch-Varnish.
They provide a Kettle or a Caldron, but a Caldron is more proper,
such an one as is described in Plate 9. at m. This Vessel should hold
twice so much Oyl as they intend to Boyl, that the Scum may be
some considerable time a Rising from the top of the Oyl to the top of
the Vessel to prevent danger. This Caldron hath a Copper Cover to
fit the Mouth of it, and this Cover hath an Handle at the top of it to
take it off and put it on by. This Caldron is set upon a good strong
Iron Trevet, and fill’d half full of old Linseed-Oyl, the older the better,
and hath a good Fire made under it of solid matter, either Sea Coal,
Charcoal or pretty big Chumps of Wood that will burn well without
much Flame; for should the Flame rise too high, and the Oyl be very
hot at the taking off the Cover of the Caldron, the fume of the Oyl
might be apt to take Fire at the Flame, and endanger the loss of the
Oyl and Firing the House: Thus they let Oyl heat in the Caldron till
they think it is Boyling-hot; which to know, they peel the outer Films
of an Oynion off it, and prick the Oynion fast upon the end of a small
long Stick, and so put it into the heating Oyl: If it be Boyling-hot, or
almost Boyling-hot, the Oynion will put the Oyl into a Fermentation,
so that a Scum will gather on the top of the Oyl, and rise by degrees,
and that more or less according as it is more or less Hot: But if it be
so very Hot that the Scum rises apace, they quickly take the Oynion
out, and by degrees the Scum will fall. But if the Oyl be Hot enough,
and they intend to put any Rosin in, the quantity is to every Gallon of
Oyl half a Pound, or rarely a whole Pound. The Rosin they beat
small in a Mortar, and with an Iron Ladle, or else by an Handful at a
time strew it in gently into the Oyl lest it make the Scum rise too fast;
but every Ladle-full or Handful they put in so leasurely after one
another, that the first must be wholly dissolv’d before they put any
more in; for else the Scum will Rise too fast, as aforesaid: So that
you may perceive a great care is to keep the Scum down: For if it
Boyl over into the Fire never so little, the whole Body of Oyl will take
Fire immediately.
If the Oyl be Hot enough to Burn, they Burn it, and that so often till it
be Hard enough, which sometimes is six, seven, eight times, or
more.
To Burn it they take a long small Stick, or double up half a Sheet of
Paper, and light one end to set Fire to the Oyl; It will presently Take if
the Oyl be Hot enough, if not, they Boyl it longer, till it be.
To try if it be Hard enough, they put the end of a Stick into the Oyl,
which will lick up about three or four drops, which they put upon an
Oyster-shell, or some such thing, and set it by to cool, and when it is
cold they touch it with their Fore or Middle-Finger and Thumb, and
try its consistence by sticking together of their Finger and Thumb; for
if it draw stiff like strong Turpentine it is Hard enough, if not, they
Boyl it longer, or Burn it again till it be so consolidated.
When it is well Boyled they throw in an Ounce of Letharge of Silver
to every four Gallons of Oyl to Clarifie it, and Boyl it gently once
again, and then take it off the Fire to stand and cool, and when it is
cool enough to put their Hand in, they Strain it through a Linnen
Cloath, and with their Hands wring all the Varnish out into a Leaded
Stone Pot or Pan, and keeping it covered, set it by for their use; The
longer it stands by the better, because it is less subject to turn Yellow
on the Paper that is Printed with it.
This is the Dutch way of making Varnish, and the way the English
Inck-makers ought to use.
Note, First, That the Varnish may be made without Burning the Oyl,
viz. only with well and long Boyling it; for Burning is but a violent way
of Boyling, to consolidate it the sooner.
Secondly, That an Apple or a Crust of Bread, &c. stuck upon the end
of a Stick instead of an Oynion will also make the Scum of the Oyl
rise: For it is only the Air contained in the Pores of the Apple, Crust
or Oynion, &c. pressed or forced out by the violent heat of the Oyl,
that raises the many Bubbles on the top of the Oyl: And the
connection of those Bubbles are vulgarly called Scum.
Thirdly, The English Inck-makers that often make Inck, and that in
great quantities, because one Man may serve all England, instead of
setting a Caldron on a Trevet, build a Furnace under a great
Caldron, and Trim it about so with Brick, that it Boyls far sooner and
more securely than on a Trevet; because if the Oyl should chance to
Boyl over, yet can it not run into the Fire, being Fenced round about
with Brick as aforesaid, and the Stoking-hole lying far under the
Caldron.
Fourthly, When for want of a Caldron the Master-Printer makes
Varnish in a Kettle, He provides a great piece of thick Canvass, big
enough when three or four double to cover the Kettle, and also to
hang half round the sides of the Kettle: This Canvass (to make it
more soluble) is wet in Water, and the Water well wrung out again,
so that the Canvass remains only moist: Its use is to throw flat over
the Mouth of the Kettle when the Oyl is Burning, to keep the smoak
in, that it may stifle the Flame when they see cause to put it out. But
the Water as was said before, must be very well wrung out of the
Canvass, for should but a drop or two fall from the sides of it into the
Oyl when it is Burning, it will so enrage the Oyl, and raise the Scum,
that it might endanger the working over
the top of the
Kettle
.
Having shewn you the Master-Printers Office, I account it suitable to

proper Method, to let you know how the Letter-Founder Cuts the
Punches, how the Molds are made, the Matrices Sunck, and the
Letter Cast and Drest, for all these Operations precede the
Compositers Trade, as the Compositers does the Press-mans;
wherefore the next Exercises shall be (God willing) upon Cutting of
the Steel-Punches.
MECHANICK EXERCISES:
Or, the Doctrine of
Handy-works.
Applied to the Art of
Letter-Cutting.
PREFACE.
LEtter-Cutting is a Handy-Work hitherto kept so conceal’d among the

Artificers of it, that I cannot learn any one hath taught it any other;
But every one that has used it, Learnt it of his own Genuine
Inclination. Therefore, though I cannot (as in other Trades) describe
the general Practice of Work-men, yet the Rules I follow I shall shew
here, and have as good an Opinion of these Rules, as those have
that are shyest of discovering theirs. For, indeed, by the appearance
of some Work done, a judicious Eye may doubt whether they go by
any Rule at all, though Geometrick Rules, in no Practice whatever,
ought to be more nicely or exactly observed than in this.
§. 12. ¶. 1. Of Letter-Cutters Tools.

The making of Steel-Punches is a Branch of the Smith’s Trade: For,
as I told you in the Preface to Numb. 1. The Black-Smith’s Trade
comprehends all Trades that use either Forge or File, from the
Anchor-Smith, to the Watch-maker: They all working by the same
Rules, though not with equal exactness; and all using the same
Tools, though of different Sizes from those the Common Black-Smith

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Ecological Political Economy and the

Socio-Ecological Crisis 1st Edition

Designing a Sustainable Financial System: Development

Ecodharma Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis

Sustainable Energy Transitions: Socio-Ecological

Bioeconomy And Global Inequalities: Socio-Ecological

The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for

Digital Democracy and Socio Ecological Finance How to

Political Economy Perspectives on the Greek Crisis:

Agro ecological Approaches to Pest Management for

Martin P.A. Craig

More information about this series at

Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956502

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

1 Introduction: Ecological Political Economy

2 Two Conceptualisations of Socio-ecological Crisis 11

3 Diagnosing Socio-ecological Crisis 19

4 Prescribing Decisive Responses

5 Conclusion: Towards an Ecological

Fig. 3.1 UK DMC and resource productivity 38

Introduction: Ecological Political Economy

Abstract This chapter introduces the enterprise of ecological political

Keywords Capitalism • Crisis • Decisive intervention • Ecological •

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 1

THE SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS CONFRONTING

It is helpful at this point to clarify the distinction between the term

greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss (Rockström et al. 2009).

STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

this reason, each successive chapter of this book explores contemporary

To do so, I draw on the world ecology perspective, asking whether the

Two Conceptualisations of Socio-ecological

Abstract In this chapter I turn to the conceptualisation of socio-ecological

Keywords Fourteenth century • Capitalism • Crisis • Decisive interven-

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 11

of such a crisis need not manifest themselves in the form of biospheric

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS AS ‘METABOLIC RIFT’

constitute a political economy. In doing so, they dramatically increase the

numerous other biophysical processes upon which the orderly continuity

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL CRISIS AS EXHAUSTED

contradiction at the heart of feudal socio-ecological relations. Ultimately,

little more to be gained by continuing at the present very high level of

Diagnosing Socio-ecological Crisis

Abstract This chapter considers how the socio-ecological crisis con-

Keywords Asymmetrical co-dependence • Biodiversity loss • Capital accu-

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 19

I argue that capitalism’s socio-ecological crisis has never been decisively

WHAT IS A CAPITALIST SOCIETY?

¶. 1. The Worms for Printing-Press Spindles must be projected

¶. 13. Of the Bar marked B in Plate 8.

¶. 14. Of the Hose, Garter, and Hose-Hooks.

¶. 15. Of the Ribs, and Cramp-Irons.

The Ribs are delineated in Plate 8. at E, they are made of four

¶. 16. Of the Spindle for the Rounce, described in Plate 9. at a.

The Axis or Spindle is a straight Bar of Iron about three quarters of

¶. 17. Of the Press-Stone.

The Press-Stone should be Marble, though sometimes Master

¶. 18. Of the Plattin marked d in Plate 9.

The Plattin is commonly made of Beechen-Planck, two Inches and

¶. 19. Of the Points and Point-Screws.

¶. 20. Of the Hammer, described at h, and Sheeps-Foot