How does Marxist dependency theory help rethink the contemporary issue of environmental degradation?
MSc Environmental Change and International Development student, Cadi Panton, explores how Marxist dependency theory helps rethink the contemporary issue of environmental degradation?
“Ecology and capitalism, are, by their nature, in opposition” (Amin, 2009, p. 21).
This blog employs a Marxist dependency framework as a useful “entry point from which to explore the contemporary world”, analysing the phenomenon of environmental degradation through the case study of oil spills in the Niger Delta region. Environmental degradation denotes ecological damage driven by anthropogenic and/or natural causes impacting both natural and human systems with environmental, economic, political and social consequences. Critically, recognising the drivers of environmental degradation is at once political and place-based, often conceptualised as an inevitability of capitalism. Through the application of Marxist dependency theory this blog considers the case study of oil spills in the Niger delta to show (1) how an over-dependence on oil exports in Nigeria facilitates the heightened risk of environmental degradation established through neo-colonial trade relations and (2) how the persistent and ongoing nature of the spills is sustained through a system of ecologically unequal exchange.
- Outlining Marxist Dependency Theory
Dependency theory emerged as a reaction to the perceived failures of modernisation theory’s capacity to explain the state of persistent underdevelopment in Latin America. Subsequently, the Marxist sub-division analysed the ‘dependency’ of Latin America as a fundamental condition of global capitalism, centrally arguing that historic colonial relations structured dynamics of unequal exchange between ‘core’ extractive economies and ‘periphery’ ex-colonial states. Dos Santos defined dependence as “a situation in which the economies of one group of countries are conditioned by the development and expansion of others”.
Due to the changing face of global capitalism – principally the move from government to governance and rising climate change pressures – the continued relevance of MDT is debated. Leys (1996) argues that due to power shifts from states to markets, states can no longer enact economic policy against (any) owners of capital, rendering MDT imprecise in its analysis of neo-colonial core economies. Markedly, Hackett argues that through a reflexive understanding of these shifting economic conditions the theory remains useful, that by “reimagining the actors in dependency, and incorporating recognition of the shift toward a more governance-oriented society, the value of this theory as a unit of analysis becomes clear”. Samir Amin, for example, is often credited for his nuanced analysis of “polarising tendencies of globalisation” creating relations of dependency in and between states and populations (Kufakurinani, 2017).
- Conditions of Dependence, Conditions of Degradation
An application of MDT uncovers the historical conditions that facilitated a dependence on oil extraction from the Niger Delta and the accompanying ecological risks. Oil was first discovered in 1956 in the Oloibiri region, and between 1956-76, oil revenues subsequently grew from substantiating 0.1% to 87% of the national economy. At a high ecological cost, between 2020-2021, there were 822 oil spills
across the Delta region, onsetting multiple socio-economic and ecological damages. The region's life expectancy is 41 years, 10 years lower than the national average.
Emerging as a newly independent state from British colonial rule in the 1960s conditioned Nigeria to “depend on extractive sectors, foreign investors, and expatriates to explore and exploit” natural resources. MDT posits that emergent economies did not enter equally into the market, rather continued to be subject to exploitative regimes as an extension of their colonial past, obfuscated by the illusion of 'free trade'. In praxis, the discovery of oil saw an influx of international investors and asymmetrical trade relations to the Delta region: by the 1970s the region's oil was largely under the ownership of the 'Shell Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Company Ltd, a coalition between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Shell Internation, Elf and Agip. Critically, ‘core’ interests were sustained through their presence in ‘periphery’ exports, highlighting how “dependency is one of the means by which the relationship between the legacy of colonisation and the promise of independence is understood”.
- Ecologically Unequal Exchange
Accounting for 75% of government income, Nigeria’s economy is extremely vulnerable to oil price shocks. Critically, while liberal economics naturalises market ‘fluctuations’ (also perceiving Nigeria’s significant GDP growth following oil discovery as a 'development success') Amin's theory of 'unilateral adjustment' explains the state's fragile economy, high inequality, growing poverty, and low socio-economic investment as a continued state of dependency. In particular, this conditional access to artificial development exacerbates the exploitation of natural resources (oil) to sustain national income. It is within this precarious context that the concept of “ecologically unequal exchange” highlights the obfuscation of socio-ecological costs within the global economy whereby environmental degradation is “offshored to countries in the periphery” (Ciplet et al., 2022).
Markedly, in 2019, due to ongoing local activism, Shell was ordered to pay (US)$2billion in damages to affected communities for oil spill damages. While MDT faces critique for neglecting the role of agency in international politics, in the case of Nigeria, the theory of ecologically unequal exchange could be adopted to explore the relationship between oil corporations and local activists. Ultimately, international oil pricing fails to account for the environmental damage shouldered by communities in the Niger Delta region facilitating the continued issue of environmental degradation in the form of oil spills. This “biophysical inequality of exchange” operates to sustain an ecologically damaging industry, disincentivising environmental regulations.
- Conclusion
While scholars debate the continued relevance of MDT in a shifting global economy, this blog critically demonstrated how the theory continues to provide useful insights into environmental degradation, specifically the relationship between capitalism and the environment through the case study of oil spills in the Niger Delta. First, the blog outlined MDT providing a theoretical basis for analysis. Second, the blog evaluated Nigeria's neo-colonial conditions of dependence and subsequent heightened risk of oil spills. Lastly, the blog analysed the how the oil spills have been sustained through a system of ‘ecologically unequal exchange’.
Author: Cadi Panton - MSc Environmental Change and International Development
Bibliography
Amin, S. (2009) ‘Capitalism and the Ecological Footprint’, Monthly Review, 61(6), p. 19. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14452/MR-061-06-2009-10_2.
Ciplet, D. et al. (2022) ‘The unequal geographies of climate finance: Climate injustice and dependency in the world system’, Political Geography, 99, p. 102769. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102769.
Leys, C. (1980) ‘Challenging Development Concepts’, The IDS Bulletin, 11(3), pp. 21–24. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.1980.mp11003004.x.
Kufakurinani, U. et al. (2017) Dialogues on Development Volume 1: Dependency. New York: Institute for New Economic Thinking.