Organizational political economy, corporate power, and the great acceleration of environmental pollution in the United States

The analysis here shows how changes in the broader social structural arrangements enable corporations to engage in the great acceleration of environmental pollution. Although some dimensions of the social structure may appear to be unrelated or only indirectly related to the climate and ecological crises, changes in component parts of the social structure in recent decades increased the organizational power of corporations to continue their environmentally destructive behaviors. Explicit in this focus is understanding environmental inequality as an outcome (e.g., the effects on individuals, communities, societies) must begin with understanding the ways in which the interconnected component parts of the social structural generate inequality of power to pollute in the first place. The analysis suggests that effective solutions to the climate and ecological crises must limit the organizational power of corporations that emerges from the complex and interconnected component parts of contemporary corporate-state relations.