Revitalizing the production of nature thesis: A Gramscian turn?

doi:10.1177/0309132512448831

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Revitalizing the production of nature thesis: A Gramscian turn?

Journal Article•DOI•

Revitalizing the production of nature thesis: A Gramscian turn?

Michael Ekers¹, Alex Loftus²•Institutions (2)

University of Toronto¹, Royal Holloway, University of London²

01 Apr 2013-Progress in Human Geography (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 37, Iss: 2, pp 234-252

TL;DR: This paper revisited the central ontological claim in the production of nature thesis, Neil Smith's proposition that labour is at the heart of the mutual co-production of nature and society, and argued that there is a danger of losing the embodied, historically and geographically specific practices that are so central to the making of natures.

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Abstract: This paper revisits the central ontological claim in the production of nature thesis, Neil Smith’s proposition that labour is at the heart of the mutual co-production of nature and society. Surveying Smith’s work and others, we argue that there is a danger of losing the embodied, historically and geographically specific practices that are so central to the making of natures. Turning to the work of Antonio Gramsci, we find crucial resources that enable a historicized and geographically contextualized understanding of the making of natures.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference

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David Conradson¹•Institutions (1)

University of Bristol¹

01 Apr 1998-New Zealand Geographer

TL;DR: In this article, the material frames of daily life are constituted and represented through social practices, not as separate elements but in relation to each other, and they then become fundamental to the exploration of political, economic and ecological alternatives to contemporary life.

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Abstract: This book engages with the politics of social and environmental justice, and seeks new ways to think about the future of urbanization in the twenty-first century. It establishes foundational concepts for understanding how space, time, place and nature the material frames of daily life are constituted and represented through social practices, not as separate elements but in relation to each other. It describes how geographical differences are produced, and shows how they then become fundamental to the exploration of political, economic and ecological alternatives to contemporary life.

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1,246 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The Feminist Standpoint Revisited and Other Essays

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Tabor Fisher

01 Nov 2003-International Studies in Philosophy

247 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society.

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John E. Elliott

01 Sep 1978-History of Political Economy

242 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The Metabolism of Socioecological Fixes: Capital Switching, Spatial Fixes, and the Production of Nature

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Michael Ekers¹, Scott Prudham¹•Institutions (1)

University of Toronto¹

22 May 2017-Annals of the American Association of Geographers

TL;DR: The socio-ecological implications of the diversion of fixed capital into the built environment have been insufficiently developed by Harvey and others as discussed by the authors, and neither Harvey nor Smith emphasized the role of political struggle and contestation as internal to the formation of spatial fixes and the production of nature.

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Abstract: In this article, and the companion piece that follows, we develop an account of the socioecological fix. Our concern is to explore the ways in which crises of capitalist overaccumulation might be displaced through spatial fixes that result in the production of nature. We review Harvey's theory of the spatial fix, with emphasis on his model of capital switching, noting that the socioecological implications of the diversion of fixed capital into the built environment have been insufficiently developed by Harvey and others. We invoke Smith's writings on the production of nature to help fill this lacuna but note that Smith did not discuss the spatial fix vis-a-vis the production of nature explicitly. Moreover, neither Harvey nor Smith emphasized the role of political struggle and contestation as internal to the formation of spatial fixes and the production of nature, respectively. We draw on O'Connor's theory of ecological contradiction along with Katz and other feminist political economists who emphasized th...

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97 citations

Cites background from "Revitalizing the production of natu..."

...Various historically constituted socionatures of everyday life, nevertheless, have properties and dynamics that comprise their use values and are thus actively involved in shaping their commodification (Prudham 2003; Bakker and Bridge 2006; Eaton 2011; Ekers and Loftus 2013)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The Socioecological Fix: Fixed Capital, Metabolism, and Hegemony

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Michael Ekers¹, Scott Prudham¹•Institutions (1)

University of Toronto¹

02 Jan 2018-Annals of the American Association of Geographers

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that fixed capital is inherently political-ecological in its constitution and how it shapes socioecological processes of landscape transformation and can be understood as a produced form of nature tied to the circulation of value and the deployment of social labor.

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Abstract: This article, the second of two, argues that conceptualizing the socioecological fix involves understanding how fixed capital, as a produced production force, can transform the socioecological conditions and forces of production while also securing the hegemony of particular social hierarchies, power relations, and institutions We stress that fixed capital is inherently political–ecological in its constitution and how it shapes socioecological processes of landscape transformation Fixed capital necessarily congeals socioecological materials and processes and can be understood as a produced form of nature tied to the circulation of value and the deployment of social labor Fixed capital is therefore inherently metabolic and internalizes and transforms socioecologies We also discuss the fixing of capital within socioecological landscapes as processes involving both the formal and real subsumption of nature We emphasize the dual role of fixed capital formation in shaping the socioecological conditions an

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63 citations

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Book•

Justice, nature, and the geography of difference

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David Harvey

01 Jan 1996

TL;DR: In this article, the Dialectics of Discourse are used to describe the relationship between social and environmental change, and a Cautionary Tale on Internal Relations is presented. But it does not address the effect of environmental change on social relations.

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Abstract: Thoughts for a Prologue. Introduction. Part I: Orientations. 1. Militant Particularism and Global Ambition. 2. Dialectics. 3. A Cautionary Tale on Internal Relations. 4. The Dialectics of Discourse. 5. Historical Agency and the Loci of Social Change. Part II: The Nature of Environment. Prologue. 6. The Domination of Nature and its Discontents. 7. Valuing Nature. 8. The Dialectics of Social and Environmental Change. Part III: Space, Time and Place. Prologue. 9. The Social Construction of Space and Time. 10. The Currency of Space-Time. 11. From Space to Place and Back Again. Part IV: Justice, Difference and Politics. Prologue. 12. Class Relations, Social Justice and the Political Geography of Difference. 13. The Environment of Justice. 14. Possible Urban Worlds. Thoughts for an Epilogue. Bibliography. Index.

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3,220 citations

Book•

Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space

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Neil Smith

01 Jan 1984

TL;DR: The ideology of nature is the production of nature, the creation of space toward a theory of uneven development as mentioned in this paper, the dialectic of geographical differentiation and equalization, spatial scale and the see-saw of capital.

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Abstract: The ideology of nature the production of nature the production of space toward a theory of uneven development - the dialectic of geographical differentiation and equalization, spatial scale and the see-saw of capital the restructuring of capital.

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2,322 citations

Book•

Grundrisse : foundations of the critique of political economy (rough draft)

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Karl Marx

01 Jan 1973

TL;DR: The Grundrisse as discussed by the authors is a collection of seven notebooks on capital and money written by Marx during the winter of 1857-8, and was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory.

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Abstract: Written during the winter of 1857-8, the "Grundrisse" was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, it both develops the arguments outlined in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and explores the themes and theses that were to dominate his great later work "Capital". Here, for the first time, Marx set out his own version of Hegel's dialectics and developed his mature views on labour, surplus value and profit, offering many fresh insights into alienation, automation and the dangers of capitalist society. Yet while the theories in "Grundrisse" make it a vital precursor to "Capital", it also provides invaluable descriptions of Marx's wider-ranging philosophy, making it a unique insight into his beliefs and hopes for the foundation of a communist state.

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1,734 citations

"Revitalizing the production of natu..." refers background or methods in this paper

...(Marx, 1973: 105) Smith’s discussion of labour describes a ‘real abstraction’ that is simultaneously the ‘thought abstraction’ of classical economics....
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...(Marx, 1973: 100–101) By refocusing our attention on the question of labour within the production of nature, we reemphasize the concrete as the concrete ‘because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse’....
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...Instead, from the Grundrisse, Smith takes his cue to historicize production thereby developing an incipient co-evolutionary perspective in which labour serves as one moment within a broader, continually transforming, totality (cf. Marx, 1973: 99)....
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...…labour that recognize these multiple determinants and the embodied practice of labouring are now explicit in many grounded studies of the production of nature; however, the multiplicity of determinations demanded by Braun is also implicit in the approach Smith takes from Marx (cf. Marx, 1973: 99)....
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...Supporting this, he quotes the Grundrisse (Marx, 1973: 85): ‘Production in general is an abstraction, but a rational abstraction in so far as it really brings out and fixes the common element’ in all periods of production....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference

[...]

David Conradson¹•Institutions (1)

University of Bristol¹

01 Apr 1998-New Zealand Geographer

...read moreread less

1,246 citations

"Revitalizing the production of natu..." refers background in this paper

...…most of the theoretical contributions made by historical materialists highlight the generative role of the capital-labour relation in the production of capitalist natures (Castree, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002; Harvey, 1996; Kirsch and Mitchell, 2004; Mitchell, 2003; Smith, 1984; Swyngedouw, 2004, 2006)....
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...Amid the myriad material, symbolic and representational relations that contribute to the making of natures, most of the theoretical contributions made by historical materialists highlight the generative role of the capital-labour relation in the production of capitalist natures (Castree, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002; Harvey, 1996; Kirsch and Mitchell, 2004; Mitchell, 2003; Smith, 1984; Swyngedouw, 2004, 2006)....
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...This is peculiar given that labour is the ontological key to understanding how nature is produced and how humans engage with different ecologies (Castree, 2002; Harvey, 1996; Loftus, 2007; Mitchell, 1996; Swyngedouw, 2000)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Modernity and Hybridity: Nature, Regeneracionismo, and the Production of the Spanish Waterscape, 1890–1930

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Erik Swyngedouw¹•Institutions (1)

University of Oxford¹

01 Sep 1999-Annals of The Association of American Geographers

TL;DR: The importance of water is not only a recent development in Spain, but also a long-standing phenomenon in the Iberian peninsula as discussed by the authors, where water politics, economics, culture, and engineering have infused and embodied the myriad tensions and conflicts that drove and still drive Spanish society.

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Abstract: Spain is arguably the European country where the water crisis has become most acute in recent years. The political and ecological importance of water is not, however, only a recent development in Spain. Throughout this century, water politics, economics, culture, and engineering have infused and embodied the myriad tensions and conflicts that drove and still drive Spanish society. And although the significance of water on the Iberian peninsula has attracted considerable scholarly and other attention, the central role of water politics, water culture, and water engineering in shaping Spanish society on the one hand, and the contemporary water geography and ecology of Spain as the product of centuries of socioecological interaction on the other, have remained largely unexplored. The hybrid character of the water landscape, or “waterscape,” comes to the fore in Spain in a clear and unambiguous manner. The socionatural production of Spanish society can be illustrated by excavating the central role of water po...

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904 citations

"Revitalizing the production of natu..." refers background in this paper

...…marxist oriented accounts of social natures that can hardly be described as reductionist (see Gandy, 2002; Kaika, 2005; Kaika and Swyngedouw, 2000; Swyngedouw, 1999), one way of addressing his critique is through adding texture to the treatment of labour within marxist accounts of the making of…...
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...While Braun overlooks many marxist oriented accounts of social natures that can hardly be described as reductionist (see Gandy, 2002; Kaika, 2005; Kaika and Swyngedouw, 2000; Swyngedouw, 1999), one way of addressing his critique is through adding texture to the treatment of labour within marxist accounts of the making of natures, through such work as Hartsock’s and Rose’s....
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