The physical economy of France (1830–2015)
The history of a parasite?
Publication date
2018-12-10
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Magalhães, Nelo
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste
Jarrige, François
Le Roux, Thomas
Levillain, Gaëtan
Noblet, Guillaume
Bonneuil, Christophe
Organisational unit
EHESS, Paris
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Publisher
Elsevier
Series or journal
Ecological Economics
ISSN
Periodical volume
157
First page
291
Last page
300
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
English
Abstract
This article explores long-term trends and patterns of material use in France for a 185-year period. It is the first long-term study of material flows for France with national and yearly data for most of the period. Based on a material flow analysis (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy-wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials, we investigated the evolution of the French metabolism from industrialization to financialized capitalism. Over the whole period, there is a 9-fold increase in domestic material consumption, an expansion of material use per capita, and a spectacular addition of abiotic resources (fossil fuels and minerals) to biotic materials. Using a world-ecology framework, we exhibit a specific metabolic path: that of a state benefiting from successive world-systems for its economic development through massive material imports.
Version
Published version
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