Book Review: The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen

Abstract

Jamie Ranger reviews Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen’s 2021 book The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism. The book explores the extent to which everyday practices of consumption in the global North rely on the exploitation of resources and labour from ‘somewhere else’ (an intentionally vague reference to the global South) and as such hide the broader paradox at the heart of the expansion of western standards of living across the world: the more globally accessible the standard of living becomes, the more economically exploitative and ecologically unsustainable it is for those not privy to its comforts.

Keywords

• imperial mode of living
• green capitalism
• anti-imperialism
• exploitation
• global south