intensive development are coming due. Full employment is no longer the priority it once was in the rich countries, and as knowledge-based jobs are concentrated into narrow bands of the workforce, the vast numbers of new jobs are deskilled McJobs (Sklar, 1995, p. 26). This is not the kind of service work that green economists advocate. But peopleintensive ecological work is precisely what could build a new kind of progressive union power. This dissertation cannot hope to properly treat the implications of dematerialization and green development for the labour movement, for womens equality, or for global poverty and international development. But it is important to recognize that there is a close relationship between social and ecological exploitation, and social and ecological development. Understanding the industrial economys relationship to materials and resources can make a great contribution to understanding the status of women, of workers and of the Global South in social change today. While this thesis cannot hope to explore all these things, I believe my treatment of green economic potentials can be useful to those who wish to do so. Although the primary focus of popular environmental awarenessand green buildinghas been on energy, it is our relationship to materials that will probably have the most significance for green economic transformation and the establishment of sustainable societies. Cutting-edge thinking on green economics has accurately identified industrialism with material accumulation, and postindustrialism with what has been called dematerialization of the economy. Green thinkers recognize that the growing importance of knowledge, information and culture should make it possible to displace materials and energy from production with human intelligence and ingenuity. This