John Bellamy Foster (born August 19, 1953) is an American

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

and editor of the ''

Monthly Review The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

''. He writes about

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and

economic crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and ma ...

, ecology and

ecological crisis An ecological or environmental crisis occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include: * Degradation of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, incr ...

, and

Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew f ...

Early life

Foster was active in the

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

and environmental movements before enrolling at

Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a ...

in 1971. He studied

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

in response to what he saw as an unfolding crisis in the

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

economy and US involvement with the

1973 Chilean coup d'état The 1973 Chilean coup d'état () was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist ...

. In 1976, he moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and entered the

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

graduate program at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. He submitted his 1979 paper, ''The United States and Monopoly Capital: The Issue of Excess Capacity'', to

Paul Sweezy Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine ''Monthly Review''. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory ...

of ''Monthly Review''. He also was published in journals such as ''

The Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Kat ...

'' and ''

Science & Society ''Science & Society: A Journal of Marxist Thought and Analysis'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of Marxist scholarship. It covers economics, philosophy of science, historiography, women's studies, literature, the arts, and other soc ...

'', and, in 1986, published ''The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism: An Elaboration of Marxian Political Economy'', based on his Ph.D. dissertation. Foster was hired in 1985 as a Visiting Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. One year later he took a position as assistant professor of sociology at the

, and became a full professor of sociology in 2000. In 1989 he became a director of the Monthly Review Foundation Board and a member of the editorial committee of Monthly Review.

''Monthly Review''

Foster published his first article for ''

'', "Is Monopoly Capital an Illusion?", while in graduate school in 1981. He became a director of the Monthly Review Foundation Board and a member of the ''

'' editorial committee in 1989. Along with Robert McChesney, who had since their days at Evergreen College become a leading scholar of the political economy of the media, Foster joined

and Harry Magdoff as a co-editor of ''

'' in 2000. Two years later, he became president of the Monthly Review Foundation. After Paul Sweezy's death in 2004, Robert McChesney's resignation as co-editor (while remaining on the board), and Harry Magdoff's death in 2006, Foster was left as sole editor of the magazine.

Work

Foster's initial research centered on Marxian political economies and theories of capitalist development, with a focus on Paul Sweezy and

Paul Baran Paul Baran (born Pesach Baran ; April 29, 1926 – March 26, 2011) was a Polish-American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks. He was one of the two independent inventors of packet switching, which is today the do ...

's theory of monopoly. This was reflected in Foster's early book ''The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism'' and the coedited volume (with

Henryk Szlajfer Henryk Szlajfer (born 7 November 1947, Wrocław) – Polish economist and Political science, political scientist of Jews, Jewish origin, professor at the University of Warsaw, in the years 1993–2008, director of the Department of Strategy and P ...

), ''The Faltering Economy: The Problem of Accumulation under Monopoly Capitalism''. In the late 1980s, Foster turned toward issues of ecology. He focused on the relationship between the global environmental crisis and the crisis in the capitalist economy, while stressing the imperative for a sustainable, socialist alternative. During this period he published ''The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment''; his article "Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift" in the ''

American Journal of Sociology The ''American Journal of Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly academic journal that publishes original research and book reviews in the field of sociology and related social sciences. It was founded in 1895 as the first journal in its disci ...

''; and ''Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature''. His reinterpretation of Marx on ecology introduced the concept of "

metabolic rift Metabolic rift is a theory of ecological crisis tendencies under the capitalist mode of production that sociologist John Bellamy Foster ascribes to Karl Marx. Quoting Marx, Foster defines this as the "irreparable rift in the interdependent proc ...

" and was widely influential. This work led to his receiving the Distinguished Contribution Award of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...

's Environment and Technology section. ''Marx's Ecology'' itself received the book award from the ASA's Section on Marxist Sociology. This work was soon followed up by his book ''Ecology Against Capitalism'', which focused on the critique of

economics from the standpoint of the environment. As editor of ''

'', Foster returned to his earlier work on the

, but with a renewed focus on the role of U.S.

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

following September 2001. His 2006 book '' Naked Imperialism'', along with frequent editorials in the pages of ''

'', attempted to account for the growing U.S. military role in the world and the shift toward a more visible, aggressive global projection. Additionally, Foster has worked to expand Sweezy and Baran's theory of

monopoly capital ''Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order'' is a 1966 book by the Marxian economists Paul Sweezy and Paul A. Baran. It was published by Monthly Review Press. It made a major contribution to Marxian theory by shi ...

in light of the current financially led phase of capitalism, which he terms "monopoly-finance Capital." In this context he has written several books on the

financialization Financialization (or financialisation in British English) is a term sometimes used to describe the development of financial capitalism during the period from 1980 to the present, in which debt-to-equity ratios increased, and financial service ...

and the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. '' Critique of Intelligent Design'', Foster's book co-authored with Brett Clark and Richard York, is a continuation of his research on materialist philosophy and the relationship between ancient Greek philosopher

Epicurus Epicurus (, ; ; 341–270 BC) was an Greek philosophy, ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy that asserted that philosophy's purpose is to attain as well as to help others attain tranqui ...

and

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. Drawing on his ecological work, particularly ''Marx’s Ecology'', Foster defends

historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

as fundamental to a rational,

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

worldview, against proponents of

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...

and other non-

materialist Materialism is a form of philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materia ...

ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

. Foster's book ''The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology'' (2020) won the Deutscher Memorial Prize for that year. In the book, "Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initia ...

Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) are credited with advancing mari ...

, and

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...

, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism."

Bibliography

* ''The Vulnerable Planet'' (1999) * ''Marx's Ecology'' (2000) * ''Ecology Against Capitalism'' (2002) * ''The Ecological Revolution'' (2009) * ''The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism'' (2014) * Foster, J.B., B. Clark, and R. York (2010) ''The Ecological Rift'' * Foster, J.B. and R.W. McChesney (2012) ''The Endless Crisis'' * Foster, J.B. and P. Burkett (2016) ''Marx and the Earth'' * ''Trump in the White House: Tragedy and Farce'' (2017) *''The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology'' (2020) *''Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution'' (2022)

Articles, lectures, and interviews

* 1999. Marx's theory of metabolic rift: classical foundations for environmental sociology. ''American Journal of Sociology'' 105(2):366-405. DOI: 10.1086/210315 * 2016. Marxism in the Anthropocene: dialectical rifts on the Left. ''International Critical Thought'' 6(3):393-421. DOI: 10.1080/21598282.2016.1197787

References

External links

John Bellamy Foster's personal website