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Cited by 508

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Nature That Capital Can See: Science, State, and Market in the Commodification of Ecosystem Services

Robertson, Morgan M·2006·Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
DOI 10.1068/d3304
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Abstract

The development of stable markets in ecosystem services is now a major neoliberal policy initiative in the United States and elsewhere. Such markets, however, require ecosystem scientists to play a new and challenging role in certifying the value of the commodities traded, which are defined using the holistic measures of ecology rather than the uncontroversial measures of weight, volume, or time. As ecosystem science increasingly serves as a metrical technology for the commodification of ecosystem services, its fine and fragile distinctions increasingly bear the weight of capital circulation. In this paper I report on fieldwork among ecosystem assessment technicians, and suggest that this new round of the commodification of nature may overwhelm the capacity of science to provide stable representations of commodity value. The methods and techniques of ecosystem assessment must describe a nature that capital can ‘see’—that has an uncontroversial measure—in order for trade to occur. However, these assessment methods currently produce unstable data that are rendered meaningful in economic terms only by dint of creative and ad hoc efforts at translation by field technicians. It is suggested that this may represent a practical limit or crisis point in the expansion of capital relations, or at least a complication in the streamlined neoliberal narratives about the commodification of ecosystem services.

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Metadata

Authors
Robertson, M. M.
Venue
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2006-06
Volume
24
Issue
3
Pages
367-387
ISSN
  • 0263-7758 (ISSN-L)
  • 1472-3433
DOI
10.1068/d3304
OpenAlex
W2161809738
Cited by
508
References
35
FWCI
6.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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