"Fire alarm": Michael Löwy and the ecosocialist critique of the modern capitalist civilization

Abstract

The emergence of the ecological crisis as a clearer symptom of a true civilizatory crisis has imposed new challenges to critical thought and, in particular, to Marxism. Based on this assumption, this article aims to present Michael Löwy's defense of an ecosocialist radicalization of the Marxist critique of modernity, a task for which Walter Benjamin's great refusal of the ideologies of progress is one of the critical sources of inspiration. To Michael Löwy, breaking away from the ideologies of progress and from the modern capitalistic civilizatory paradigm is a prerequisite for the ecosocialist updating of Marxism.

Michael Löwy; ecosocialism; critical of progress; critique of modernity