Nature Is Beyond Value Because We Are Part of Nature

,

doi:10.1080/10455752.2019.1610596

“…Nevertheless, Marx states that these value relations are obscured in the 'fetishized' commodity form under Journal of Political Ecology Vol. 28, 2021 7 capitalism, which transforms subjective relations between people and the rest of nature into apparently objective relations between money and things (Saed, 2019). Nature-society geographers have drawn on Marx's historical materialist approach in their studies of environmental change, degradation and (in)justice (Harvey, 1996).…”

Section: The Production Of Value and Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

11. Producing Elephant Commodities for ‘Conservation Hunting’ in Namibian Communal-area Conservancies

Hewitson,

Sullivan

2023

Conservation, Markets &Amp; The Environment in Southern and Eastern Africa

0

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Namibia's internationally acclaimed CBNRM program depends to a large extent on revenues generated from the trophy hunting of wild animals. The model is an important example of an increasingly 'neoliberal' global policy framework as applied to biodiversity conservation, its market-based approach and attendant socioecological effects having received in-depth engagement and critique from a political ecology perspective. Yet there remains a lack of detailed research concerning how these programs and their value frames are operationalized in practice. The article attempts to advance this literature through an empirical exploration of practices undertaken by diverse actors that work to produce and extract value from 'wild' natures, specifically elephants for 'conservation hunting' in Namibian communal-area conservancies. Conceptually, the article also contributes to an emerging body of work seeking to 'ecologise' political ecology, exploring the co-optation of lively elephants and other beyond-human entities in the production of economic value. 'Following' the elephant's interactions with other living entities, the article reveals the (non)human work and social practices that together 'labor' to produce commodified elephants that can be killed as trophies. We argue that 'undesirable encounters' such as crop raiding by elephants are both indicative of unequal power relations amongst CBNRM stakeholders and central to (re)producing dominant (neoliberal) value frames. The animal's spontaneous activities are co-opted into technocratic governance practices that legitimize the killing of elephants on environmental and economic grounds. In opening up the contested, contingent, and more-than-human nature of these social-ecological relations we also hope to contribute to possibilities for imagining more equitable and ecologically resilient conservation futures.

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“…Although a commodity's 'price' varies due to changes in supply and demand, its 'value' remains constant, representative of a quantity of human labor utilized to produce it. Nevertheless, Marx states that these value relations are obscured in the 'fetishized' commodity form under capitalism, which transforms subjective relations between people and the rest of nature into apparently objective relations between money and things (Saed, 2019).…”

Section: The Production Of Value and Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Producing elephant commodities for 'conservation hunting' in Namibian communal-area conservancies

Hewitson¹,

Sullivan²

2021

Journal of Political Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Namibia's internationally acclaimed CBNRM program depends to a large extent on revenues generated from the trophy hunting of wild animals. The model is an important example of an increasingly 'neoliberal' global policy framework as applied to biodiversity conservation, its market-based approach and attendant socioecological effects having received in-depth engagement and critique from a political ecology perspective. Yet there remains a lack of detailed research concerning how these programs and their value frames are operationalized in practice. The article attempts to advance this literature through an empirical exploration of practices undertaken by diverse actors that work to produce and extract value from 'wild' natures, specifically elephants for 'conservation hunting' in Namibian communal-area conservancies. Conceptually, the article also contributes to an emerging body of work seeking to 'ecologise' political ecology, exploring the co-optation of lively elephants and other beyond-human entities in the production of economic value. 'Following' the elephant's interactions with other living entities, the article reveals the (non)human work and social practices that together 'labor' to produce commodified elephants that can be killed as trophies. We argue that 'undesirable encounters' such as crop raiding by elephants are both indicative of unequal power relations amongst CBNRM stakeholders and central to (re)producing dominant (neoliberal) value frames. The animal's spontaneous activities are co-opted into technocratic governance practices that legitimize the killing of elephants on environmental and economic grounds. In opening up the contested, contingent, and more-than-human nature of these social-ecological relations we also hope to contribute to possibilities for imagining more equitable and ecologically resilient conservation futures.

show abstract