Ecology, Markets and Capitalism: The Challenge of Sustainability.

Complex human societies are best understood as ecologies whose members exist in the realm of culture, broadly considered. When this connection is made, concepts fundamental to biological ecological science will be seen to have equivalents in human societies. However, there is a challenging disconnection between the two, because cultural ecologies change more rapidly than biological ecologies, but depend on them for their survival. This permanent issue within human, and some animal, societies is made more intractable by capitalism. Addressing it requires that market interactions with natural ecologies subordinate profit to sustainability. This paper closes with examples of such institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]