Political Economy * Environment * Globalization * Social Movements
My research uses the lens and tools of political economy to examine the interrelationship between human societies and non-human nature. Since capitalism is the dominant system through which contemporary societies organize the production and allocation of things we need and things we are encouraged to want, I'm particularly interested in how the dynamics of capitalism effect and are effected by nature, and how that, in turn, relates to social inequality and justice. Most recently, I've explored these questions by looking at how humans have related to wildland fire in the United States. I'm starting research now on how nature is drawn into financial systems through devices like carbon markets.
I'm also interested in how social movements respond to what they perceive as the problematic elements of capitalist production and distribution, leading me to my research on the Fair Trade movement. On this front, my most recent work (with Ian Hudson and Jason Edgerton) tests the widely-held belief that people choose to consume "ethically" primarily as a way of showing off. In other words, ethical consumption is more of a performance for peers than it is an expression of solidarity for workers or concern about the environmental implications of particular forms of production. We don't actually find any evidence for this. The paper is forthcoming in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology.
I'm also interested in how social movements respond to what they perceive as the problematic elements of capitalist production and distribution, leading me to my research on the Fair Trade movement. On this front, my most recent work (with Ian Hudson and Jason Edgerton) tests the widely-held belief that people choose to consume "ethically" primarily as a way of showing off. In other words, ethical consumption is more of a performance for peers than it is an expression of solidarity for workers or concern about the environmental implications of particular forms of production. We don't actually find any evidence for this. The paper is forthcoming in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology.
books
Along with Mara Fridell and Ian Hudson, I have recently published a book on Fair Trade's role in facilitating social change--particularly the extent to which it can restructure capitalist relations of production. You can check out the recording of a webinar in which Ian and I were panelists, discussing the framing strategies of the fair trade movement here.
'This is an excellent new work and a must read for anyone interested in trade justice and, its antithesis, corporate dominance of the world trading system. The book is broad in its depth, intellectually scrupulous, and a pleasure to read. The authors offer thought-provoking new insights and the challenging conclusion that, despite many bumps on the road, fair trade (at its best) represents an alternative to large scale, capitalist agriculture by altering the relations of production, exchange and consumption.' — Gavin Fridell, Saint Mary's University, Canada
'This book blows the lid off populist ideas that fair trade is necessarily a poverty busting strategy for coffee producers in the Global South. Theoretically rigorous and empirically rich the book explores how fair trade does have within it a deeply transformative potential. Yet for this to be realised it needs to go well beyond the rhetoric of the need for social and economic justice. The authors show that for fair trade to deliver on its slogans of justice and a fairer trade regimes it needs to 'dissolve the cornerstone of capitalist society: the fetishism of commodities'. Capitalism itself needs to be transformed. This is an essential text for students and activists who want to know what the strengths and limitations are of fair trade.' - Ray Bush, University of Leeds, UK
'This is an excellent new work and a must read for anyone interested in trade justice and, its antithesis, corporate dominance of the world trading system. The book is broad in its depth, intellectually scrupulous, and a pleasure to read. The authors offer thought-provoking new insights and the challenging conclusion that, despite many bumps on the road, fair trade (at its best) represents an alternative to large scale, capitalist agriculture by altering the relations of production, exchange and consumption.' — Gavin Fridell, Saint Mary's University, Canada
'This book blows the lid off populist ideas that fair trade is necessarily a poverty busting strategy for coffee producers in the Global South. Theoretically rigorous and empirically rich the book explores how fair trade does have within it a deeply transformative potential. Yet for this to be realised it needs to go well beyond the rhetoric of the need for social and economic justice. The authors show that for fair trade to deliver on its slogans of justice and a fairer trade regimes it needs to 'dissolve the cornerstone of capitalist society: the fetishism of commodities'. Capitalism itself needs to be transformed. This is an essential text for students and activists who want to know what the strengths and limitations are of fair trade.' - Ray Bush, University of Leeds, UK
"Fire Management in the American West makes a valuable contribution to the literature on wildland fire, the Forest Service, and public land management. I applaud Hudson for approaching wildfire from a different discipline, for it yields a more complex history and brings us closer to the truth."
—Lincoln Bramwell, U.S. Forest Service, Environmental History
"Fire Management in the American West provides...a significant case study by focusing on the role of the federal government and the forest industry in the adoption of the fire policy."
—Thomas G. Alexander, Oregon Historical Quarterly
Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in Fire Management in the American West, I argue that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular.
Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service and the major timber industry associations, newspaper articles, articles from industry outlets, and policy documents from the late 1800s through the present, I show how the US forest industry, under the constraint of profitability, pushed the USFS away from private industry regulation and toward fire exclusion, eventually changing national forest policy into little more than fire policy.
More recently, the USFS has attempted to move beyond the policy of complete fire suppression. Interviews with public land managers in the Pacific Northwest shed light on the sources of the agency's struggles as it attempts to change the way we understand and relate to fire in the West.
You can see a short piece based on the book here.
—Lincoln Bramwell, U.S. Forest Service, Environmental History
"Fire Management in the American West provides...a significant case study by focusing on the role of the federal government and the forest industry in the adoption of the fire policy."
—Thomas G. Alexander, Oregon Historical Quarterly
Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in Fire Management in the American West, I argue that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular.
Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service and the major timber industry associations, newspaper articles, articles from industry outlets, and policy documents from the late 1800s through the present, I show how the US forest industry, under the constraint of profitability, pushed the USFS away from private industry regulation and toward fire exclusion, eventually changing national forest policy into little more than fire policy.
More recently, the USFS has attempted to move beyond the policy of complete fire suppression. Interviews with public land managers in the Pacific Northwest shed light on the sources of the agency's struggles as it attempts to change the way we understand and relate to fire in the West.
You can see a short piece based on the book here.
other Publications
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Bowness, E. and Hudson, M. (2015) "Sand in the Cogs? Public Participation and Power in Alberta's Tar Sands." Environmental Politics
Hudson, M., Hudson, I. and Edgerton, J. (2014) "Political Consumerism in Context: Status and Information in Fair Trade Purchasing" American Journal of Economics and Sociology.
Fridell, M., Hudson, I., & Hudson, M. (2008). “With Friends Like These…: The Corporate Response to Fair Trade Coffee.” Review of Radical Political Economics 40(1).
Here is a snippet of coverage on that article from Miller McCune.
Hudson, Mark & Hudson, Ian (2004). “Justice, Sustainability, and Relations of Production: A Case Study of Fair Trade Coffee Production in Chiapas, Mexico,” in Social Justice 31(3): 130-146.
Hudson, Ian & Hudson, Mark (2003). “Removing the Veil? Commodity Fetishism, Fair Trade, and the Environment,” in Organization and Environment 16(4): 413-440.
Hudson, Mark. (2002). “Branches for Roots: Recalling the Context of Environmental Management,” in Environments 30(3): 21-36.
Reviews, Encyclopedia Entries and Translations:
Hudson, I. & Hudson, M. (2009) “Dissecting the Boom: Is Fair Trade Growing Out of Its Roots?” (Review Essay on Fridell, G. (2007) Fair Trade Coffee: The prospects and pitfalls of market-driven social justice; Jaffee, D (2007) Brewing Justice: Fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival; and Raynolds, L., D. Murray, and J. Wilkinson (2007) Fair Trade: The challenges of transforming globalization) in Historical Materialism 17: 237–252.
Hudson, M. (2007). “Fair Trade” in Anderson, Gary L. and Kathryn G. Herr (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hudson, M. (2004). Book Review. “The Perverse Economy,” in Monthly Review December.
Podolinsky, S. (2004). “Socialism and the Unity of Physical Forces” (DiSalvo, A. & M. Hudson, trans.) in Organization and Environment 17(1): 61-75 (original work published 1880).
Hudson, M. (1998). Book Review. “Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights,” in Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace Studies. 3(4), November: 104-107.
Works In Progress:
Ideological Networks in Economics: A Social Networks Analysis.
Legitimacy and Participation in the Alberta Tar Sands
Capitalism's "Digestion" of Climate Change
Bowness, E. and Hudson, M. (2015) "Sand in the Cogs? Public Participation and Power in Alberta's Tar Sands." Environmental Politics
Hudson, M., Hudson, I. and Edgerton, J. (2014) "Political Consumerism in Context: Status and Information in Fair Trade Purchasing" American Journal of Economics and Sociology.
Fridell, M., Hudson, I., & Hudson, M. (2008). “With Friends Like These…: The Corporate Response to Fair Trade Coffee.” Review of Radical Political Economics 40(1).
Here is a snippet of coverage on that article from Miller McCune.
Hudson, Mark & Hudson, Ian (2004). “Justice, Sustainability, and Relations of Production: A Case Study of Fair Trade Coffee Production in Chiapas, Mexico,” in Social Justice 31(3): 130-146.
Hudson, Ian & Hudson, Mark (2003). “Removing the Veil? Commodity Fetishism, Fair Trade, and the Environment,” in Organization and Environment 16(4): 413-440.
Hudson, Mark. (2002). “Branches for Roots: Recalling the Context of Environmental Management,” in Environments 30(3): 21-36.
Reviews, Encyclopedia Entries and Translations:
Hudson, I. & Hudson, M. (2009) “Dissecting the Boom: Is Fair Trade Growing Out of Its Roots?” (Review Essay on Fridell, G. (2007) Fair Trade Coffee: The prospects and pitfalls of market-driven social justice; Jaffee, D (2007) Brewing Justice: Fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival; and Raynolds, L., D. Murray, and J. Wilkinson (2007) Fair Trade: The challenges of transforming globalization) in Historical Materialism 17: 237–252.
Hudson, M. (2007). “Fair Trade” in Anderson, Gary L. and Kathryn G. Herr (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hudson, M. (2004). Book Review. “The Perverse Economy,” in Monthly Review December.
Podolinsky, S. (2004). “Socialism and the Unity of Physical Forces” (DiSalvo, A. & M. Hudson, trans.) in Organization and Environment 17(1): 61-75 (original work published 1880).
Hudson, M. (1998). Book Review. “Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights,” in Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace Studies. 3(4), November: 104-107.
Works In Progress:
Ideological Networks in Economics: A Social Networks Analysis.
Legitimacy and Participation in the Alberta Tar Sands
Capitalism's "Digestion" of Climate Change