Knowing Nature through Markets: Trade, Populations, and the History of Ecology
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09505431.2010.519618
ISSN1470-1189
Autores Tópico(s)American History and Culture
ResumoAbstract Those concerned with issues of environmental sustainability typically harbor a deep ambivalence with respect to markets and related institutions of the capitalist system of production and distribution. Perhaps most troubling is the way that market practices—standardization, commodification, and monetization—tend to facilitate erasure of the complex ecological as well as social connections linking production and consumption. But despite this tendency, the global spread of markets—and methodologies for their analysis—has also permitted us to learn much about the status of natural resources and populations. Drawing on two examples from the history of ecology and environmental protection, this article explores what markets permit us to know about populations and how this is integrated with other kinds of environmental knowledge in the context of a 'civic epistemology', the set of methods and processes by which communities identify policy issues and make knowledge to address them. Seen in this light, markets are not simply causes of environmental problems: they simultaneously define these problems and shape the knowledge base upon which their solution depends. Keywords: Population ecologyeconomymacroeconomicseconometricsconservation policies Notes Exploring the impacts of market-based 'neoliberal' regimes of environmental governance has been the focus of much literature in geography (see e.g. Smith, 1984 Smith, N. 1984. Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [Google Scholar]; Harvey, 1996 Harvey, D. 1996. 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