The "Metabolic Rift" of John Bellamy Foster:

What contributions for an ecomarxist theory?

William Sacher

This article sets out to analyse the relevance and identify the eventual limits and shortcomings of J. Bellamy Foster’s concept of “metabolic fracture”. A series of criticisms from various branches of ecomarxism are compiled. Some criticisms reject the idea altogether, while others recognise its interest and consider refining it. Despite an obvious lack of empirical foundations and its “catastrophic” character, I propose the concept has several merits. It explicitly refers to the Marxist concept of “metabolism” and allows a much-needed debate in ecomarxism about the limits of nature to be started.

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