The accumulation–metabolism nexus: internationalization, labour–capital relations, and material flows of French capitalism since the post-war era.

The article investigates the relationship between capital accumulation regimes and socio-metabolic regimes in French capitalism from 1948 to 2015 by integrating Regulation Theory (RT) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA). It identifies two main accumulation regimes—Fordism and finance-led capitalism—and demonstrates how these correspond to distinct socio-metabolic regimes characterized by domestic and offshore material flows, respectively. The authors introduce the concept of the accumulation–metabolism nexus to capture the dynamic interplay between institutionalized socio-economic compromises and material flows, showing that shifts in material use and internationalization (offshoring) are integral to changes in the wage–labour nexus and the insertion of France into the international regime. The study highlights that environmental and material dynamics are essential to understanding capitalist accumulation and calls for further research on the global and institutional dimensions of socio-metabolic regimes.