Abstract

The work of the American science-fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson powerfully addresses contemporary climate politics, ecology, and environmental struggles. Robinson is a ‘hard-science fiction’ writer, meaning his novels are less interested in sensational plots than imagining ‘real-world’ practical solutions to contemporary social and political problems. Robinson’s fiction remains one of the most progressive, yet understudied, bodies of literary work in its critique of contemporary neoliberal capitalism. His novels and numerous short-story collections have relentlessly mapped the turbulent historical cycles of material despoliation, violence, and expropriation of capitalist networks, in turn proposing radical visions of social and economic justice through science, worker-ownership, and environmental stewardship.

Discussions of Robinson’s work lead indelibly through the writing of Marx and Marxist critical thinkers interested in ecology, political economy, utopia, and revolution. This paper will provide a critical reading of a selection of his recent works, drawing practical conclusions for Marxism today.