What's ontology got to do with it? On nature and knowledge in a political ecology of the 'green economy'

Abstract

Contemporary market-based (i.e. neoliberal) 'green economy' approaches to environmental degradation emphasise exchanges whereby quantified units of environmental harm are traded or 'offset' for compensating units of environmental health. Also encouraged is a view that economic growth can be 'greened' through 'decoupling' economic value from material ecological realities. Such approaches tend to frame biophysical natures in terms of aggregates, such as an 'aggregate natural capital rule' and 'net zero carbon.' Naturesbeyond-the-human are thereby understood and enacted as calculable, exchangeable, substitutable and commensurable between different spatial and temporal sites, making up an 'aggregate' or 'net' value overall. This article uses a comparative cross-cultural engagement to problematize ontological assumptions regarding the nature of nature underscoring the rationality of these aggregating and offsetting 'solutions.' Drawing on literatures from environmental anthropology and environmental ethics, combined with ethnographic material from long-term field research in north-west Namibia, the article considers elements of alternative cultural ontologies and the ways these may give rise to a different array of practices with value for conceiving and generating 'sustainability.' It adheres to a critical political ecology perspective in understanding the ways that power structures the ontologies that become both privileged and occluded in neoliberal strategies for green economy governance. In doing so, the article argues that sensitivity to the ontological politics through which spaces and entities are defined and known and which thereby shape environmental conflicts, may be key to recognising with more depth the sometimes significantly different 'natures' being struggled over in such conflicts. Key words: ontology; green economy; offsetting; decoupling; sustainability; value; natures-beyond-thehuman; neoliberalism; political ecology Résumé Les approches de la dégradation de l'environnement fondées sur le marché et l'économie verte mettent l'accent sur les échanges, dans le cadre desquels des unités quantifiées de dommages à l'environnement sont échangées ou «compensées» pour compenser des unités de santé environnementale. On encourage également l'idée que la croissance économique peut être «vernie» par le biais du «découplage» de la valeur économique des réalités écologiques matérielles. De telles approches tendent à encadrer les natures biophysiques en termes d'agrégats, tels qu'une «règle du capital naturel agrégé» et un «carbone zéro net». Les natures-au-delà de l'humain sont ainsi comprises et promulguées comme calculables, échangeables, substituables et commensurables entre différents sites spatiaux et temporels, constituant une valeur «agrégée» ou «nette». Cet article utilise un engagement interculturel comparatif pour problématiser les hypothèses ontologiques concernant la nature de la nature, soulignant la rationalité de ces «solutions» d'agrégation et de compensation.

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