The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism

With the concept of the Imperial Mode of Living, Brand & Wissen highlight the fact that capitalism implies uneven development as well as a constant & accelerating universalisation of a Western mode of production & living. The logic of liberal markets since the nineteenth century, & especially since World War II, has been inscribed into everyday practices that are usually unconsciously reproduced. The authors show that they are a main driver of the ecological crisis & economic & political instability. 

The Imperial Mode of Living implies that peoples everyday practices, including individual & societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources; a disproportionate claim on global & local ecosystems & sinks; & cheap labour from elsewhere. This availability of commodities is largely organised through the world market, backed by military force and/or the asymmetric relations of forces as they have been inscribed in international institutions. 

Moreover, the Imperial Mode of Living implies asymmetrical social relations along class, gender & race within the respective countries. Here too, it is driven by the capitalist accumulation imperative, growth-oriented state policies & status consumption. The concrete production conditions of commodities are rendered invisible in the places where the commodities are consumed. The imperialist world order is normalised through the mode of production & living.