Abstract

Capitalism is destroying our planet, but like most social progress in the last two centuries, ecological justice can only be achieved through working-class struggle. In Workers of the Earth: Labour, Ecology and Reproduction in the Age of Climate Change, Stefania Barca uncovers the environmental history and political ecology of labour to shed new light on the potentiality of workers as ecological subjects. Taking an ecofeminist approach and expanding the category of labour to include waged and unwaged, industrial, domestic and subsistence workers, the book offers a fresh perspective on the place of labour in today’s global climate struggle. In this seminar, the author will offer a general overview of the book’s main argument and a reflection on how research and political engagement have converged into it.