Review of Planetary Improvement by Jesse Goldstein

Book review
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
2018

Jesse Goldstein’s book, Planetary Improvement, is a welcome addition to the critical environmental analysis of capitalism. An interdisciplinary project, the book explores the emerging cleantech marketplace and connects work on entrepreneurialism, the creative economy, and technological innovation within a Marxist framework. Cleantech is not just environmentally friendly technology, but a way in which such technologies are embedded within a new investment discourse that seeks to merge venture capitalism with an environmentalist ethic. Though this book is intended for an academic audience, the author’s clear and concise mobilization of theory, which is in turn grounded by an approachable ethnographic method, makes it accessible to a broad readership that includes activists, entrepreneurs, and even laypersons interested in the green economy.