IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v41y2025i4p522-545.html

How ‘Consuming Nations’ Should Stop Contributing to Worldwide Deprivation: A Concise Overview of Relevant Literature

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Drummond

Abstract

The terms “consuming nations†and “providing nations†distinguish between nations consuming more than their fair share of resources, and those providing resources on unfair terms. An overview and synthesis of 500 references, in various disciplines, suggests that (a) the actions of consuming nations have contributed, and continue to contribute, to deprivation in providing nations and (b) to stop contributing to this deprivation, consuming nations need to reform their policies. Consuming-nation governments are potentially violating the subsistence rights of residents of providing nations, and consuming-nation residents have a responsibility to work toward their governments taking the necessary action to end the violation.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Drummond, 2025. "How ‘Consuming Nations’ Should Stop Contributing to Worldwide Deprivation: A Concise Overview of Relevant Literature," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 41(4), pages 522-545, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:41:y:2025:i:4:p:522-545
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X251362939
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X251362939
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X251362939?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hickel, Jason & Dorninger, Christian & Wieland, Hanspeter & Suwandi, Intan, 2022. "Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113823, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Dorninger, Christian & Hornborg, Alf & Abson, David J. & von Wehrden, Henrik & Schaffartzik, Anke & Giljum, Stefan & Engler, John-Oliver & Feller, Robert L. & Hubacek, Klaus & Wieland, Hanspeter, 2021. "Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    3. Jason Hickel & Morena Hanbury Lemos & Felix Barbour, 2024. "Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Miller, Richard W., 2010. "Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199581993.
    5. Sullivan, Dylan & Hickel, Jason, 2023. "Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    6. Hickel, Jason & Hanbury Lemos, Morena & Barbour, Felix, 2024. "Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124543, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Sullivan, Dylan & Hickel, Jason, 2023. "Capitalism and extreme poverty: a global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117731, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Mukherjee, Shivaji, 2018. "Historical legacies of colonial indirect rule: Princely states and Maoist insurgency in central India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 113-129.
    9. George Klay Kieh Jr., 2023. "The Peripheral State and Corruption in The Global South," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 39(1), pages 82-103, March.
    10. Ronald Mangani, 2022. "The Political Economy of Debt in Africa: Critical Propositions to Stop the Bleeding," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 65(2), pages 108-115, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Godé, Lukas & Vatn, Arild & Gómez-Baggethun, Erik, 2026. "Unequal exchange of labour and global justice: Principles for a fair international distribution of work," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    2. Alf Hornborg, 2025. "Unequal exchange is not primarily about monetary value," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-3, December.
    3. Godé, Lukas & Mair, Simon & Gómez-Baggethun, Erik, 2026. "Labour productivity gains or offshoring? Implications for post-growth proposals on the future of work," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    4. Hickel, Jason & Sullivan, Dylan, 2024. "How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all? Insights from needs-based analysis," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    5. Cattaneo, Claudio & Lemos, Mariana Morena Hanbury & Humpert, Viktor & Montlleo, Marc & Tello, Enric & Demaria, Federico, 2025. "Ecological economics into action: Lessons from the Barcelona City doughnut," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    6. Giannetti, Biagio F. & Nascimento, Glauco A.do & Netto, Luiz Ghelmandi & Nacimento, Rafael Araujo & Demétrio, Fernando J.C. & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Agostinho, Feni, 2025. "Advancing the diagnosis of poverty traps: A regional application of Emergy Theory and the 5SEnSU model in Brazil," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 510(C).
    7. Pablo R. Liboreiro & Fahd Boundi-Chraki, 2026. "Unequal exchange, profit rate and growth: An empirical estimation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 58(2), pages 253-273, March.
    8. Hickel, Jason & Sullivan, Dylan, 2024. "How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all? Insights from needs-based analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124460, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Dasgupta, Indraneel, 2024. "A Rent-Seeking Perspective on Imperial Peace," IZA Discussion Papers 17312, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Tausch, Luca & Althouse, Jeffrey, 2025. "Ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) as a multi-tiered hierarchy: Investigating the interdependence of global and domestic environmental inequalities to explain China's rise," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    11. Kristian Kongshøj, 2023. "Social policy in a future of degrowth? Challenges for decommodification, commoning and public support," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Olk, Christopher, 2024. "How much a dollar cost: Currency hierarchy as a driver of ecologically unequal exchange," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Ardiyanto Gai & Rustiadi Ernan & Akhmad Fauzi & Baba Barus & Dekka Putra, 2025. "Poverty Reduction Through Adaptive Social Protection and Spatial Poverty Model in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia’s National Strategic Tourism Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Vogel, Jefim & Guerin, Gauthier & O'Neill, Daniel W. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2024. "Safeguarding livelihoods against reductions in economic output," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    15. Song, Yaya & Huang, Xianjin & Li, Qianjing & Qi, Xinxian & Sun, Rui & Wang, Mingshu, 2025. "Unpacking China's land use and trade-driven land transfers through telecoupling," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Emi Minghui Gui & Alvaro Romera & Adriana Descalzo & Patrick Caron & Gabriel Isaac Lopez Porras & Bahman Rostami-Tabar & Riccardo Bommarco & Thaura Ghneim-Herrera, 2026. "What makes the contribution of science towards a sustainable future so difficult? A controversy analysis," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Althouse, Jeffrey & Cahen-Fourot, Louison & Carballa-Smichowski, Bruno & Durand, Cédric & Knauss, Steven, 2023. "Ecologically unequal exchange and uneven development patterns along global value chains," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    18. Hornborg, Alf, 2023. "Unpacking the black box of ‘energy technology’: How abstraction and resource fungibility obscure ecologically unequal exchange," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    19. Pierucci, Pedro & Agostinho, Feni & Sulis, Federico & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2025. "Modern colonialism in carbon markets? Insights from emergy accounting," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 510(C).
    20. Hanno Pahl & Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle & Jens Schröter, 2023. "Envisioning post-capitalist utopias via simulation: Theory, critique and models," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 445-465, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:41:y:2025:i:4:p:522-545. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.