Ulrich Brand
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 277841 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Ulrich Brand |
| NOMBRES | Ulrich |
| APELLIDO | Brand |
| FIRMA | BRAND U |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5760-4652 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 58 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 345 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 56 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2000 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 12 |
Overcoming the Competitiveness Imperative as a Basic Condition for Global Degrowth
The imperative of international competitiveness is a central dispositif of the prevailing capitalist-imperial and growth-oriented global economic and political order. A global degrowth perspective, as part of comprehensive, socio-ecological transformations based on solidarity, must address this issue, as the focus on competitiveness is a key obstacle to the desired and necessary changes. After a brief outline of the prevailing views on competitio…
Forschungsbewertungen neu denken
Reaktion auf Nölting et al. in GAIA 34/2 (2025): Wissenschaftsorganisationen als Impulsgeber einer Nachhaltigkeitstransformation, und Mayer in GAIA 34/4 (2025): Universitäten in der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation: Es braucht Willen und ZeitDie Leistungsmessung in der Wissenschaft wird oft als einseitig kritisiert. Aktuelle Reformbewegungen von research assessments wollen hier Abhilfe schaffen. In Österreich bieten erste Änderungen bei Förderprogra…
Die strukturellen Grenzen des Dekarbonisierungsstaates
Um die Klimaziele zu erreichen, haben viele OECD-Staaten ihre Bemühungen zur Dekarbonisierung ihrer Wirtschaften verstärkt. Dennoch besteht eine gravierende Umsetzungslücke, die durch den aktuellen klimapolitischen Backlash noch vergrößert wird. Ausgehend von der These eines entstehenden »Dekarbonisierungsstaates« argumentieren wir, dass ein tieferes Verständnis des liberal-kapitalistischen Staates und seiner Grundfunktionen dazu beitragen kann, …
Eco-imperial Tensions
The neoliberal world order has given way to a geopolitical disorder, shaped by the climate crisis and increasing rivalries between dominant powers. This poses a challenge to the social sciences. Neither theories searching for the problem-solving potentials of 'global governance' nor critical notions of imperialism seem to be equipped to fully grasp the rapidly changing circumstances. Instead, we suggest to understand the recent upheavals as eco-i…
The Imperial Mode of Living as an Underlying Cause of Crises and a Mechanism for Crisis Management
Kapitalismus am Limit; Öko-imperiale Spannungen, umkämpfte Krisenpolitik und solidarische Perspektiven. Von den Autoren des Bestsellers »Imperiale Lebensweise«
Der Frankfurter Marxismus war immer anders.«
Joachim Hirsch leistete seit Ende der 1960er-Jahre wichtige Beiträge zur historisch-materialistischen Staats- und Gesellschaftstheorie und prägte den Begriff des »radikalen Reformismus«. Als Professor für Politikwissenschaft an der Goethe-Universität (1972-2003) und Redakteur der Zeitschrift links intervenierte er auch in gesellschaftspolitische Debatten. In dem Gespräch blickt er auf seine inhaltliche und praktische wissenschaftliche Arbeit in u…
The Global Political Economy of the imperial mode of living
Despite the high politicisation of the ecological crisis, political strategies to deal with it fail to tackle the root cause of the crisis but intend to ecologically modernise capitalism. This is an entry point for critical (Global) Political Economy. First, to understand the hegemonic character of ecologically destructive social relations, GPE should focus not only on political and economic structures, but also on their anchoring in people’s eve…
Emanzipatorische Perspektiven im »Anthropozän«
Das wirkmächtige Anthropozän-Narrativ begreift die ökologische Krise als eine von Menschen gemachte. Dabei vernachlässigt es jedoch die herrschaftsförmige gesellschaftliche Vermittlung des menschlichen Einwirkens auf Natur. Das Anthropozän-Narrativ kann daher die Bearbeitung der ökologischen Krise nur als technologisch modernisierte Naturbeherrschung denken. Diese aber droht die ökologische Krise zu verschärfen und soziale Spaltungen zu vertiefen…
Herrschaftskritische theoretische Praxis
Im Interview erzählt Alex Demirovic von seiner theoretischen und politischen Sozialisation in Frankfurt im Nachgang der Student_innenbewegung und der Kritischen Theorie: Er berichtet von seiner Althusser- und Poulantzas-Lektüre der 1970er-Jahre, ebenso wie vom revolutionären Umfeld, vom Versuch der Gründung einer linkssozialistischen Partei und von den Anfängen der Grünen
From planetary to societal boundaries
The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capital…
Workers, Trade Unions, and the Imperial Mode of Living
Arbeiter*innenklasse und imperiale Lebensweise
Stefanie Hürtgen hat sich in der PROKLA kritisch mit dem Konzept der imperialen Lebensweise auseinandergesetzt: Dieses vernachla?ssige die Klassenfrage und die widerständigen Alltagssubjektivitäten. Das Nord-Su?d-Verha?ltnis werde unterkomplex konzeptualisiert. In der Tat bedu?rfen die subjektiven Voraussetzungen sozial-o?kologischer Transformation einer genauen Betrachtung. Allerdings ist eine widersta?ndige Subjektivita?t nicht per se emanzipat…
Wider die Fixierung auf die Politik! Anmerkungen zur aktuellen Transformationsdebatte
Die Frage, wie sich die kapitalistisch-industrielle Produktionsweise begrenzen lässt, begründete die Anfänge der sozial-ökologischen Forschung. Heute, 30 Jahre später, sind die Antworten die gleichen wie damals: Statt auf ,,die Politik“ zu setzen, um die multiple Krise zu lösen, muss sich die Gesellschaft der Frage nach Selbstbegrenzung stellen. Die Lektüre eines Grundlagenwerks der sozial-ökologischen Forschung, das 1991 erschienen ist, hilft zu…
Beyond the jobs-versus-environment dilemma? Contested social-ecological transformations in the automotive industry
The transport sector is the major contributor to accelerating CO2 emissions, with the highest proportion stemming from road transport and passenger cars. At the same time, the automotive industry drives economic growth, contributes to state revenues and is an important employer. This article departs from this so-called jobs-versus-environment dilemma to discuss barriers and potentials for transformative change in the Austrian automotive (supplier…
Contours of historical-materialist policy analysis
Historical-materialist policy analysis (HMPA) aims at analyzing how specific policies are formulated against the background of essentially competing and contradictory interests of different social forces. It examines how, if at all, these policies contribute to societal reproduction and the regulation of social contradictions and crisis tendencies. This article provides a concise introduction to HMPA as well as to the key theoretical concepts and…
EU industrial policy
The transport sector accounts for 27 % of total CO2 emissions in the EU, with almost half of these being attributed to passenger cars and the automotive industry. In order to meet the Paris Agreement 1.5 °C target, these figures call for interventionist policies that go beyond individual consumer choice and transform industrial sectors. The article conceptually elaborates on the advancements in transformation and transition studies to analyse the…
The double materiality of democracy in capitalist societies
The complex relationship between democracy and the ecological crisis in capitalist societies and the associated challenges for social-ecological transformations is addressed. Based on a review that differentiates four strands of literature dealing with the role of the environment and democratic politics, it is argued that, despite their differences, most literature lacks a material foundation of contemporary democracies – both in its social and b…
Sozial-ökologische Transformation
Alltag und Situation
Capitalism in Transformation
Presenting a profound and far-reaching analysis of economic, ecological, social, cultural and political developments of contemporary capitalism, this book draws on the work of Karl Polanyi, and re-reads it for our times. The renowned authors offer key insights to current changes in the relations between the economy, politics and society, and their ecological and social effects
Overcoming neoliberal globalization
The ecological crisis has intensified in many respects. Prominent proposals to deal with the crisis are discussed under the header 'sustainability transformations' or even 'Great Transformation'. We argue that most contributions suffer from a narrow analytical approach to transformation ignoring the largely unsustainable dynamics of global capitalism and the power relations involved in it. Thus, a 'new critical orthodoxy' of knowledge about trans…
Zur Aktualität der Staatsform
Radikale Alternativen, Warum man den Kapitalismus nur mit vereinten Kräften überwinden kann
The Limits to Capitalist Nature
Offers an understanding of the multiple crises of capitalism, focusing on the ecological crisis and its interaction with other crisis phenomena (financial crisis, crisis of democracy, economic crisis)
Neo-Extractivism in Latin America - one side of a new phase of global capitalist dynamics
The aim of this text is to make sense of the emerging political-institutional, territorial, and socio-ecological dynamics and contradictions of neo-extractivism in Latin America in the context of global capitalist development. In contrast to some existing literature, we argue that the term 'neo-extractivism' should not be restricted to countries with progressive governments but be applied to all Latin American societies that, since the 1970s and …
Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships
This article aims to better understand the discrepancy between a relatively high level of awareness of the ecological crisis on the one hand, and insufficient political and social change on the other. This discrepancy causes a crisis of what we call the ‘Rio model of politics'. We approach the problem from the perspective of the concept of ‘societal nature relations' (gesellschaftliche naturverhältnisse), which can be situated in the framework of…
How to Get Out of the Multiple Crisis? Contours of a Critical Theory of Social-Ecological Transformation
The concept of transformation has become a buzzword within the last few years. This has to do, first, with the ever broader recognition of the profound character of the environmental crisis, secondly, with increasingly obvious limits to existing forms of (global) environmental governance, thirdly, with the emergence of other dimensions of the crisis since 2008 and, fourthly, with intensified debates about required profound social change, especial…
Second-Order Condensations of Societal Power Relations
This article develops an understanding of the internationalization of the state which draws on materialist state theory, regulation theory and the scale debate in radical geography. It introduces the concept of "second-order condensations of societal relationships of forces" which aims at advancing Poulantzas' state theoretical approach and applying it to the analysis of international state apparatuses, their functions and their relationship to s…
Overcoming neoliberal globalization
The ecological crisis has intensified in many respects. Prominent proposals to deal with the crisis are discussed under the header 'sustainability transformations' or even 'Great Transformation'. We argue that most contributions suffer from a narrow analytical approach to transformation ignoring the largely unsustainable dynamics of global capitalism and the power relations involved in it. Thus, a 'new critical orthodoxy' of knowledge about trans…
EU industrial policy
The transport sector accounts for 27 % of total CO2 emissions in the EU, with almost half of these being attributed to passenger cars and the automotive industry. In order to meet the Paris Agreement 1.5 °C target, these figures call for interventionist policies that go beyond individual consumer choice and transform industrial sectors. The article conceptually elaborates on the advancements in transformation and transition studies to analyse the…
Contours of historical-materialist policy analysis
Historical-materialist policy analysis (HMPA) aims at analyzing how specific policies are formulated against the background of essentially competing and contradictory interests of different social forces. It examines how, if at all, these policies contribute to societal reproduction and the regulation of social contradictions and crisis tendencies. This article provides a concise introduction to HMPA as well as to the key theoretical concepts and…
Degrowth and post-extractivism
Order and regulation
Under the heading of ‘Global Governance’ a discussion is taking place on changes in political regulation at the international level. In this contribution Global Governance is understood as a discourse which is a part of the search process of emerging post-Fordist politics and its substantiation. This is based on the Foucault concept of discourse. It is analyzed in terms of five dimensions: ‘globalisation’; ‘world problems’ and ‘global challenges’…
Beyond the jobs-versus-environment dilemma? Contested social-ecological transformations in the automotive industry
The transport sector is the major contributor to accelerating CO2 emissions, with the highest proportion stemming from road transport and passenger cars. At the same time, the automotive industry drives economic growth, contributes to state revenues and is an important employer. This article departs from this so-called jobs-versus-environment dilemma to discuss barriers and potentials for transformative change in the Austrian automotive (supplier…
Global Environmental Politics and the Imperial Mode of Living
The article introduces the concept of the ‘imperial mode of living’, which is sustained by capital and the capitalist state, in order to understand the persistence of resource- and energy-intensive everyday practices and their socio-ecological consequences. The imperial mode of living is principally based on an unlimited appropriation of resources and labour power and on a disproportionate claim to global sinks. In the constellation of the ‘multi…
Post-Fordist governance of nature
Compared with the stated aims and the claims for urgent action, multilateral environmental agreements show unsatisfying results. Among other reasons – e.g. a deficit in national implementation – lack of coherence among a variety of overlapping and sometimes contradictory international institutions is considered as one major cause which needs to be overcome. In this article, however, it is argued that this lack of coherence is not a result of a la…
The state and the regulation of biodiversity
The double materiality of democracy in capitalist societies
The complex relationship between democracy and the ecological crisis in capitalist societies and the associated challenges for social-ecological transformations is addressed. Based on a review that differentiates four strands of literature dealing with the role of the environment and democratic politics, it is argued that, despite their differences, most literature lacks a material foundation of contemporary democracies – both in its social and b…
Contested Regimes in the International Political Economy
This article analyses the complex interconnections between global environmental politics and trade politics against the background of biodiversity politics. Genetic resources are one of the most important inputs in post-Fordist economies: they are the raw materials of the new biotechnology companies. The system of global environmental governance that has emerged in recent years was established by a number of international institutions and organiz…
The Regulation of the Market and the Transformation of the Societal Relationships with Nature
Sustainable development and ecological modernization – the limits to a hegemonic policy knowledge
The implementation problems of effective global environmental politics have essentially to do with the fact that approaches to and the knowledge about sustainability remain sectoralized. There is a gap between the dominant or even hegemonic forms of environmental policy knowledge which are embodied in the concept of sustainable development, on the one hand, and the socially dominant forms of environmental knowledge concerning the appropriation of…
Neoliberal Globalization and the Internationalization of Protest
Contradictions and crises of neoliberal–imperial globalization and the political opportunity structures for the Global Justice Movements
The Global Justice Movements emerged in the context of the contradictions and crisis of neoliberal–imperial globalization and the critique of it. They therefore express and provide a basis for the politicization of the negative consequences of post-Fordism and its crisis. This article examines the structural changes of the last 30 years from a Gramscian perspective of neoliberal globalization as a “passive revolution” and as the deepening of a “i…
Global environmental politics and competition between nation-states
Global environmental politics is often seen as an area where cooperation among nation-states can be improved and common and trans-border issues can be regulated. The article criticizes this view which tends to ignore the complex crisis of the relationships between societies and ongoing economic competition among nation-states. Therefore, the difference between intentional political control and the unintended stabilization of social contradictions…
Approaching the Internationalization of the State
The state seems to be back again. In the face of the current economic and environmental crises, the “constitutive incompleteness” of the capital relation (Jessop 2000:325)—that is, its tendency to permanently undermine its own conditions of reproduction—has been revealed in the clearest manner. Without the intervention of the state even more banks and businesses would have failed in the last several months (or would fail in the months to come). T…
Eco-imperial Tensions
The neoliberal world order has given way to a geopolitical disorder, shaped by the climate crisis and increasing rivalries between dominant powers. This poses a challenge to the social sciences. Neither theories searching for the problem-solving potentials of 'global governance' nor critical notions of imperialism seem to be equipped to fully grasp the rapidly changing circumstances. Instead, we suggest to understand the recent upheavals as eco-i…
Dakar 2011
The potential of social movements to contest neoliberalism is the focus of Ulrich Brand’s “Dakar 2011: The World Social Forum and Its Future.” Brand situates the 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar within the history of the Forum and current events in North Africa and the Middle East. Following an insightful review of key debates, he sets out some suggestions for how to move forward in light of the current crisis
In Search of Emancipatory Politics
Global environmental politics and competition between nation-states
Global environmental politics is often seen as an area where cooperation among nation-states can be improved and common and trans-border issues can be regulated. The article criticizes this view which tends to ignore the complex crisis of the relationships between societies and ongoing economic competition among nation-states. Therefore, the difference between intentional political control and the unintended stabilization of social contradictions…
Contradicciones sustentables
El presente artículo aborda la problemática del desarrollo sustentable y del significado de las organizaciones no-gubernamentales en este ámbito dentro de la política internacional. Con el concepto de "desarrollo sustentable" se pretende hacer patente y realizable una nueva comprensión del medio ambiente y de desarrollo. Con el concepto de organizaciones no-gubernamentales (ONGs) se designan actores importantes que deben contribuir de manera deci…
Space, Regulation and the Periodization of Capitalism
The project of periodizing capitalism will remain an inconsequential academic exercise unless it engages in closer reflection on its underlying theoretical foundations. On the basis of such reflection, it should be possible to differentiate concepts of the various stages, phases and crises of capitalist development (concepts which are often conflated) and, above all, to assess the potential of an action-oriented approach with the aim of overcomin…
The Regulation of the Market and the Transformation of the Societal Relationships with Nature
Globalisierung und Kritik
Unsere Reihe »Kritik heute« wird mit einer Einlassung von Ulrich Brand fortgesetzt, der auch auf den Beitrag von Rolf Johannes aus Heft 13 eingeht. Ökonomiekritische Schwächen der kritischen Theorie, so Brand, gleiche man nicht aus, indem man auf ein rein ökonomisch gedachtes Modell des Marktes, wie es der Neoliberalismus entwickelt, zurückgreife und die Abschaffbarkeit dieses Marktes zum einzigen Kriterium authentischer Kritik erhebe. Markt sei …
The state and the regulation of biodiversity
Globalización sostenible''? Desarrollo sostenible como pegamento para el montón de cristales trizados del neoliberalismo
En la Cumbre Mundial sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo en Johannesburgo a mediados del año 2002, se pudo ver claramente que los entendimientos y las prácticas del desarrollo sostenible están en un callejón sin salida. Eso tiene que ver con el hecho que se habían ignorado los procesos mucho más dinámicos de la globalización neoliberal y de la reestructuración del mundo, incluyendo la nueva legitimidad de las guerras en los años 90s. Después del 11…
In Search of Emancipatory Politics
Order and regulation
Under the heading of ‘Global Governance’ a discussion is taking place on changes in political regulation at the international level. In this contribution Global Governance is understood as a discourse which is a part of the search process of emerging post-Fordist politics and its substantiation. This is based on the Foucault concept of discourse. It is analyzed in terms of five dimensions: ‘globalisation’; ‘world problems’ and ‘global challenges’…
Neoliberal Globalization and the Internationalization of Protest
Contested Regimes in the International Political Economy
This article analyses the complex interconnections between global environmental politics and trade politics against the background of biodiversity politics. Genetic resources are one of the most important inputs in post-Fordist economies: they are the raw materials of the new biotechnology companies. The system of global environmental governance that has emerged in recent years was established by a number of international institutions and organiz…
Post-Fordist governance of nature
Compared with the stated aims and the claims for urgent action, multilateral environmental agreements show unsatisfying results. Among other reasons – e.g. a deficit in national implementation – lack of coherence among a variety of overlapping and sometimes contradictory international institutions is considered as one major cause which needs to be overcome. In this article, however, it is argued that this lack of coherence is not a result of a la…
Sustainable development and ecological modernization – the limits to a hegemonic policy knowledge
The implementation problems of effective global environmental politics have essentially to do with the fact that approaches to and the knowledge about sustainability remain sectoralized. There is a gap between the dominant or even hegemonic forms of environmental policy knowledge which are embodied in the concept of sustainable development, on the one hand, and the socially dominant forms of environmental knowledge concerning the appropriation of…
Dakar 2011
The potential of social movements to contest neoliberalism is the focus of Ulrich Brand’s “Dakar 2011: The World Social Forum and Its Future.” Brand situates the 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar within the history of the Forum and current events in North Africa and the Middle East. Following an insightful review of key debates, he sets out some suggestions for how to move forward in light of the current crisis
Approaching the Internationalization of the State
The state seems to be back again. In the face of the current economic and environmental crises, the “constitutive incompleteness” of the capital relation (Jessop 2000:325)—that is, its tendency to permanently undermine its own conditions of reproduction—has been revealed in the clearest manner. Without the intervention of the state even more banks and businesses would have failed in the last several months (or would fail in the months to come). T…
Second-Order Condensations of Societal Power Relations
This article develops an understanding of the internationalization of the state which draws on materialist state theory, regulation theory and the scale debate in radical geography. It introduces the concept of "second-order condensations of societal relationships of forces" which aims at advancing Poulantzas' state theoretical approach and applying it to the analysis of international state apparatuses, their functions and their relationship to s…
Green Economy – the Next Oxymoron? No Lessons Learned from Failures of Implementing Sustainable Development
The concept of a green economy has become the new buzz word in sustainability discourses, particularly in light of the Rio+20 Conference . Because of the current economic crisis and the perception that sustainability politics cannot be implemented efficiently, politicians have set their hopes on greening the economy. However, there are major problems with the aims and strategies linked to this concept. Specifically, if political, economical, and …
Global Environmental Politics and the Imperial Mode of Living
The article introduces the concept of the ‘imperial mode of living’, which is sustained by capital and the capitalist state, in order to understand the persistence of resource- and energy-intensive everyday practices and their socio-ecological consequences. The imperial mode of living is principally based on an unlimited appropriation of resources and labour power and on a disproportionate claim to global sinks. In the constellation of the ‘multi…
Contradictions and crises of neoliberal–imperial globalization and the political opportunity structures for the Global Justice Movements
The Global Justice Movements emerged in the context of the contradictions and crisis of neoliberal–imperial globalization and the critique of it. They therefore express and provide a basis for the politicization of the negative consequences of post-Fordism and its crisis. This article examines the structural changes of the last 30 years from a Gramscian perspective of neoliberal globalization as a “passive revolution” and as the deepening of a “i…
Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships
This article aims to better understand the discrepancy between a relatively high level of awareness of the ecological crisis on the one hand, and insufficient political and social change on the other. This discrepancy causes a crisis of what we call the ‘Rio model of politics'. We approach the problem from the perspective of the concept of ‘societal nature relations' (gesellschaftliche naturverhältnisse), which can be situated in the framework of…
Internationalisierung des Staates
Green Economy, Green Capitalism and the Imperial Mode of Living
Transformation” as a New Critical Orthodoxy
“Transformation” is an umbrella term which places the ecological crisis in a broader context. To foster societal change, opinion leaders of the transformation debate are focusing on cooperation and learning, existing political, cultural and economic institutions, and trust in incremental change. However, these leaders are not questioning existing power relations. This bias may partly explain why social-ecological transformation has not yet occurr…
How to Get Out of the Multiple Crisis? Contours of a Critical Theory of Social-Ecological Transformation
The concept of transformation has become a buzzword within the last few years. This has to do, first, with the ever broader recognition of the profound character of the environmental crisis, secondly, with increasingly obvious limits to existing forms of (global) environmental governance, thirdly, with the emergence of other dimensions of the crisis since 2008 and, fourthly, with intensified debates about required profound social change, especial…
Neo-Extractivism in Latin America - one side of a new phase of global capitalist dynamics
The aim of this text is to make sense of the emerging political-institutional, territorial, and socio-ecological dynamics and contradictions of neo-extractivism in Latin America in the context of global capitalist development. In contrast to some existing literature, we argue that the term 'neo-extractivism' should not be restricted to countries with progressive governments but be applied to all Latin American societies that, since the 1970s and …
Political science (39 obras) · Sociology (27 obras) · Economics (25 obras) · Politics (24 obras) · Law (22 obras) · Economic and Social Issues (21 obras) · Economic system (20 obras) · Political economy (18 obras) · Law (14 obras) · Philosophy (11 obras)