ecological restructuring

the political ecology of André Gorz

Abstract

This article aims to revisit some of André Gorz’s arguments about the urgency of a radical change in the way our society is organized, marked by the “current crisis of capitalism”. In Gorz’s reading, capitalism would have already reached insurmountable external and internal limits and only   survives through subterfuges, less and less effective, to avoid the crisis of its fundamental categories: value, labor and capital. In its current form, he continues, capitalism would not be able to expand substantive freedoms, nor provide a better material horizon for the majority of workers, despite the immense possibilities brought about in the wake of the computerization and robotization processes. Consequently, Gorz maintains that the solution to this civilizing dilemma lies in the perspective of political ecology, based on a restructuring that cherishes both the reduction of working time and   the change in the relationship of individuals with others and with the web of life in our planet.