The Shallow or the Deep Ecological Economics Movement?

Ecological economics and its policy recommendations have become overwhelmed by
economic valuation, shadow pricing, sustainability measures, and squeezing Nature into the
commodity boxes of goods, services and capital in order to make it part of mainstream
economic, financial and banking discourses. There are deeper concerns which touch upon
the understanding of humanity in its various social, psychological, political and ethical facets.
The relationship with Nature proposed by the ecological economics movement has the
potential to be far reaching. However, this is not the picture portrayed by surveying the
amassed body of articles from this journal or by many of those claiming affiliation. A
shallow movement, allied to a business as usual politics and economy, has become dominant
and imposes its preoccupation with mainstream economic concepts and values. If, instead,
ecological economists choose a path deep into the world of interdisciplinary endeavour they
will need to be prepared to transform themselves and society. The implications go far beyond
the pragmatic use of magic numbers to convince politicians and the public that ecology still
has something relevant to say in the 21st Century. (author's abstract)