Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care

Author:   Giorgos Kallis
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
ISBN:  

9781503611559


Pages:   168
Publication Date:   06 August 2019
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care


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Overview

Western culture is infatuated with the dream of going beyond, even as it is increasingly haunted by the specter of apocalypse: drought, famine, nuclear winter. How did we come to think of the planet and its limits as we do? This book reclaims, redefines, and makes an impassioned plea for limits-a notion central to environmentalism-clearing them from their association with Malthusianism and the ideology and politics that go along with it. Giorgos Kallis rereads reverend-economist Thomas Robert Malthus and his legacy, separating limits and scarcity, two notions that have long been conflated in both environmental and economic thought. Limits are not something out there, a property of nature to be deciphered by scientists, but a choice that confronts us, one that, paradoxically, is part and parcel of the pursuit of freedom. Taking us from ancient Greece to Malthus, from hunter-gatherers to the Romantics, from anarchist feminists to 1970s radical environmentalists, Limits shows us how an institutionalized culture of sharing can make possible the collective self-limitation we so urgently need.

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Author:   Giorgos Kallis
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford Briefs
ISBN:  

9781503611559


ISBN 10:   1503611558
Pages:   168
Publication Date:   06 August 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

Malthus is a key figure for understanding how to survive the twenty-first century, yet Kallis shows we have spent the last two hundred years misunderstanding him. Quirky, provocative, and engaging, Limits is a must-read book for environmentalists and anti-environmentalists alike. -- Bill Adams * University of Cambridge * In an era addicted to endless growth, Giorgos Kallis artfully explores the power of limits and the surprising freedom that they can unleash. A compelling-and fittingly concise-read for our times. -- Kate Raworth * author of <i>Doughnut Economics</i> * Every so often a book comes along that can cut through fruitless debates and reveal a new way of thinking about a complex problem. Limits is such a book. Giorgos Kallis shows that by rejecting scarcity thinking, we can find the right questions and answers for our ecological and social crises. -- Juliet Schor * Boston College * In this timely and essential book, Giorgos Kallis makes a compelling argument for autonomy and freedom from the unfulfillable promise of limitless growth under consumer capitalism. He shows how democratic, egalitarian self-limitation can combat the dominant but unsustainable imperative to constantly produce and acquire more. -- Nicholas Xenos, University of Massachusetts * Amherst * [The] popular understanding of Malthus comes from a mis- or half-reading, Kallis finds....[A] reconsideration of Malthus, like recent ones of Adam Smith, is a welcome part of the assault, across many fronts, on the neoliberal order. -- Anthony Chaney * <i>U.S. Intellectual History Blog</i> * [A] welcome expansion of the English-language degrowth literature away from its usual technocratic or homespun focus on economic and environmental concerns, and into the humanities....[This] book is a very fine example of the sort of depth the environmental humanities can bring to an issue. -- Andrew J. Sutter * <i>Brave New Europe</i> * Kallis's take on [Malthus's] work was an eye-opener for me....Whether you are interested in Malthus, growth and its limits, or issues of sustainability, I recommend Limits as a pleasantly concise and thought-provoking book that is sure to stimulate discussion. -- <i>The Inquisitive Biologist</i> [How] did the idea of limits get such a bad rap? Well, the great virtue of Giorgos Kallis's fine book,Limits, is in pointing this out by showing how the idea of limits got conflated with the spectral notion of 'scarcity' and in revealing a host of problems which followed from that unholy union....Kallis undertakes something of a phenomenology and anthropology of limits, which is an enjoyable and eminently humane ride. -- Michael J. Sauter * <i>Front Porch Republic</i> *


[The] popular understanding of Malthus comes from a mis- or half-reading, Kallis finds....[A] reconsideration of Malthus, like recent ones of Adam Smith, is a welcome part of the assault, across many fronts, on the neoliberal order. -- Anthony Chaney * <i>U.S. Intellectual History Blog</i> * Malthus is a key figure for understanding how to survive the twenty-first century, yet Kallis shows we have spent the last two hundred years misunderstanding him. Quirky, provocative, and engaging, Limits is a must-read book for environmentalists and anti-environmentalists alike. -- Bill Adams * University of Cambridge * Every so often a book comes along that can cut through fruitless debates and reveal a new way of thinking about a complex problem. Limits is such a book. Giorgos Kallis shows that by rejecting scarcity thinking, we can find the right questions and answers for our ecological and social crises. -- Juliet Schor * Boston College * [How] did the idea of limits get such a bad rap? Well, the great virtue of Giorgos Kallis's fine book,Limits, is in pointing this out by showing how the idea of limits got conflated with the spectral notion of 'scarcity' and in revealing a host of problems which followed from that unholy union....Kallis undertakes something of a phenomenology and anthropology of limits, which is an enjoyable and eminently humane ride. -- Michael J. Sauter * <i>Front Porch Republic</i> * In an era addicted to endless growth, Giorgos Kallis artfully explores the power of limits and the surprising freedom that they can unleash. A compelling-and fittingly concise-read for our times. -- Kate Raworth * author of <i>Doughnut Economics</i> * In this timely and essential book, Giorgos Kallis makes a compelling argument for autonomy and freedom from the unfulfillable promise of limitless growth under consumer capitalism. He shows how democratic, egalitarian self-limitation can combat the dominant but unsustainable imperative to constantly produce and acquire more. -- Nicholas Xenos, University of Massachusetts * Amherst *


In this timely and essential book, Giorgos Kallis makes a compelling argument for autonomy and freedom from the unfulfillable promise of limitless growth under consumer capitalism. He shows how democratic, egalitarian self-limitation can combat the dominant but unsustainable imperative to constantly produce and acquire more. -- Nicholas Xenos, University of Massachusetts * Amherst * Kallis's take on [Malthus's] work was an eye-opener for me....Whether you are interested in Malthus, growth and its limits, or issues of sustainability, I recommend Limits as a pleasantly concise and thought-provoking book that is sure to stimulate discussion. -- <i>The Inquisitive Biologist</i> In an era addicted to endless growth, Giorgos Kallis artfully explores the power of limits and the surprising freedom that they can unleash. A compelling-and fittingly concise-read for our times. -- Kate Raworth * author of <i>Doughnut Economics</i> * [How] did the idea of limits get such a bad rap? Well, the great virtue of Giorgos Kallis's fine book,Limits, is in pointing this out by showing how the idea of limits got conflated with the spectral notion of 'scarcity' and in revealing a host of problems which followed from that unholy union....Kallis undertakes something of a phenomenology and anthropology of limits, which is an enjoyable and eminently humane ride. -- Michael J. Sauter * <i>Front Porch Republic</i> * [A] welcome expansion of the English-language degrowth literature away from its usual technocratic or homespun focus on economic and environmental concerns, and into the humanities....[This] book is a very fine example of the sort of depth the environmental humanities can bring to an issue. -- Andrew J. Sutter * <i>Brave New Europe</i> * Every so often a book comes along that can cut through fruitless debates and reveal a new way of thinking about a complex problem. Limits is such a book. Giorgos Kallis shows that by rejecting scarcity thinking, we can find the right questions and answers for our ecological and social crises. -- Juliet Schor * Boston College * Malthus is a key figure for understanding how to survive the twenty-first century, yet Kallis shows we have spent the last two hundred years misunderstanding him. Quirky, provocative, and engaging, Limits is a must-read book for environmentalists and anti-environmentalists alike. -- Bill Adams * University of Cambridge * [The] popular understanding of Malthus comes from a mis- or half-reading, Kallis finds....[A] reconsideration of Malthus, like recent ones of Adam Smith, is a welcome part of the assault, across many fronts, on the neoliberal order. -- Anthony Chaney * <i>U.S. Intellectual History Blog</i> *


In an era addicted to endless growth, Giorgos Kallis artfully explores the power of limits and the surprising freedom that they can unleash. A compelling-and fittingly concise-read for our times. * Kate Raworth,author of <i>Doughnut Economics</i> * Malthus is a key figure for understanding how to survive the twenty-first century, yet Kallis shows we have spent the last two hundred years misunderstanding him. Quirky, provocative, and engaging, Limits is a must-read book for environmentalists and anti-environmentalists alike. -- Bill Adams * University of Cambridge * Every so often a book comes along that can cut through fruitless debates and reveal a new way of thinking about a complex problem. Limits is such a book. Giorgos Kallis shows that by rejecting scarcity thinking, we can find the right questions and answers for our ecological and social crises. -- Juliet Schor * Boston College * In this timely and essential book, Giorgos Kallis makes a compelling argument for autonomy and freedom from the unfulfillable promise of limitless growth under consumer capitalism. He shows how democratic, egalitarian self-limitation can combat the dominant but unsustainable imperative to constantly produce and acquire more. -- Nicholas Xenos, University of Massachusetts * Amherst *


Author Information

Giorgos Kallis is ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona.

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