CCI Seminar - Prof. Jason Hickel

Extracting Value, Eroding Ecosystems: Global Inequality, Ecological Boundaries, and the Dynamics of Unequal Exchange

In this seminar, Professor Jason Hickel will explore the interconnections between global economic exploitation, ecological degradation, and the possibilities for just sustainability. Drawing on extensive research quantifying unequal exchange from 1960 to 2018, Hickel will reveal how the global economic system systematically extracts resources and value from the Global South, undermining not just economic development, but ecological resilience and planetary wellbeing.

Hickel will illuminate how current economic paradigms fundamentally contradict principles of ecological sustainability and social justice. The research exposes how structural economic inequalities drive unsustainable consumption patterns, environmental destruction, and constrain the capacity of developing nations to invest in ecological preservation and regenerative economic models.

The seminar will challenge traditional economic narratives by connecting unequal exchange to broader discussions of post-growth economics, highlighting how current global economic structures:

• Systematically transfer ecological burden to the Global South
• Prevent meaningful climate action and biodiversity conservation
• Undermine local and indigenous ecological knowledge and practices
• Create barriers to developing alternative, sustainable economic pathways

Integrating insights from ecological economics, world-systems theory, and critical development studies, Hickel will propose transformative frameworks for reimagining economic relationships that respect planetary boundaries, center ecological regeneration, and enable genuine human and environmental flourishing.

A drinks reception will follow directly after the talk in the Common Room.

If you would like to attend online, please register to receive Zoom details.

CCI Seminars are now organised by the CCI EDO and not the CRI.