Nonhuman labour, encounter value, spectacular accumulation: the geographies of a lively commodity

Abstract

This paper maps into geographies of 'lively commodities', commodities whose value derives from their status as living beings. In an era where life itself has become a locus of capitalist accumulation, picking apart the category of 'liveliness' underpinning commodification has important analytical and geographical stakes. To this end, by tracking historical geographies of commodifying lions in political economies of ecotourism in India, this paper shows how more-than-human labour and lively potentials affect commodification and influence accumulation, not simply through recalcitrance, but as active participants within political economic organisation. The paper advances and develops a triad of relational conceptsnonhuman labour, encounter value, spectacular accumulationthrough which the political economic potency of lively commodities might be articulated and grasped. It concludes by discussing the analytical potential of this approach and its future purchase for rethinking commodity geographies.

Situating animal ethics in Thai elephant tourism

“…In the era of neoliberalism, more and more wild animals are used as lively commodities in the global tourism industry (Duffy and Moore, ; Duffy, ; Barua, ). In tourism spaces, industries and markets emphasise the ‘encounter value’ of wildlife (Barua, ). However, the business of encounters faces many criticisms for its negative effects on animal welfare and species conservation.…”

Zopilotes, Alacranes, y Hormigas(Vultures, Scorpions, and Ants): Animal Metaphors as Organizational Politics in a Nicaraguan Garbage Crisis

“…The idea that animals “work”, and that their work might inform the organization of human labor, is not new, even if it has been recently reanimated in critical geography (see Barua ; Kallis and Swyngedouw ; Moore ). Yet how animals work is still an open question.…”

“…Theoretical concepts from “metabolism” to “thing‐power” portray the behaviors of beings like flies, vultures (the zopilotes in our title), rodents, mosquitoes, scorpions (the alacranes in our title), microbes, and ants (the hormigas in our title) as forms of work (e.g. Barua ; Bennett ; Moore ; Perkins ). But it is not just political ecologists who think of work like this.…”

Animating capital: Work, commodities, circulation

“…Equally, corporeal affordances such as homeothermy which prompts haptic interactions, and forward-facing eyes that enable intensive, desirable encounters to be staged, play a vital role, as shown in instances of lions and elephants in political economies of ecotourism and biodiversity conservation (Barua, 2016). These potentials, that appear charismatic to publics, are frequently amplified and channelled by marketing campaigns (Barua, 2017). On the other hand, bioeconomic circuits mobilizing ecosystem services or natural capital gravitate towards the reproductive and the aggregate (Collard and Dempsey, 2013).…”

“…An important thrust has been on the encounter: forms of attachment emerging through sensory and affective registers (Wilson, 2016;Barua, 2015) with direct bearings on a lively commodity's socio-political palatability (Barua, 2016). Encounters, and therefore commodity surfaces, are understood relationally -an animal's lifeworld and behavioural ecology playing an important role in how they take 'grip' (Barua, 2015), or fail to compose mutual worlds (Ginn, 2013), but equally contingent upon geomaterial histories of these relations and stratified dynamics of power (Barua, 2017).…”