IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v45y2013i11p2682-2699.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life for Sale? The Politics of Lively Commodities

Author

Listed:
  • Rosemary-Claire Collard

    (Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3G3)

  • Jessica Dempsey

    (School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, PO Box 3060 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3R4)

Abstract

When so many facets of nonhuman life are commodified daily with little challenge, this paper looks to shed light on what is objectionable about commodifying nonhuman life. As a contribution in this direction, we undertake a comparative examination of the formation of two different but equally lively, and international, commodities: Exotic pets and ecosystem carbon. In this paper we first set out to understand what characteristics of life matter in the production of the commodity. We argue that a particular mode of value-generating life predominates in each commodity circuit: in exotic pet trade, an individualized, ‘encounterable’ life; in ecosystem services, an aggregate, reproductive life. Second, we find that hierarchies between humans and other beings are highly generative in the formation and effects of lively commodities. On one hand, these hierarchies cast nonhumans in a disposable state that is integral to the functioning of exotic pet trade; on the other hand, these hierarchies are partly what ecosystem services are designed to address. Nevertheless, we find that reproduction of uneven species geographies is at work in both economies. The degree and nature of effect on the material conditions of nonhuman lives is, however, distinct, and our conclusion calls for greater attention to these differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosemary-Claire Collard & Jessica Dempsey, 2013. "Life for Sale? The Politics of Lively Commodities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2682-2699, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:11:p:2682-2699
    DOI: 10.1068/a45692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a45692
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a45692?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Heimann & Markus Reichstein, 2008. "Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks," Nature, Nature, vol. 451(7176), pages 289-292, January.
    2. Fabian Muniesa & Yuval Millo & Michel Callon, 2007. "An introduction to market devices," Post-Print halshs-00177928, HAL.
    3. Donald MacKenzie, 2006. "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262134608, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Delphine Gibassier & Karen Maas & Stefan Schaltegger, 2019. "Special issue of business, strategy, and the environment call for papers business, society, biodiversity, and natural capital deadline June 30, 2020 (see details of conference/workshop at the end of t," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 921-924, July.
    2. Milena Bojovic & Andrew McGregor, 2023. "A review of megatrends in the global dairy sector: what are the socioecological implications?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 373-394, March.
    3. Alonso-Fernández, Pablo & Regueiro-Ferreira, Rosa María, 2022. "Extractivism, ecologically unequal exchange and environmental impact in South America: A study using Material Flow Analysis (1990–2017)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    4. Kathryn Gillespie, 2021. "The afterlives of the lively commodity: Life-worlds, death-worlds, rotting-worlds," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 280-295, March.
    5. Pütz Robert, 2020. "Die Vermarktlichung von Wildnis. Lebendige Waren, Companionability und Encounter Value beim Mustang Makeover Germany," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 64(1), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Chris KK Tan & Tingting Liu & Xiaojun Gao, 2021. "Becoming ‘pet slaves’ in urban China: Transspecies urban theory, single professional women and their companion animals," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(16), pages 3371-3387, December.
    7. Carolyn Prouse, 2021. "Mining liquid gold: The lively, contested terrain of human milk valuations," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 958-976, August.
    8. Wallace, Robert G. & Bergmann, Luke & Kock, Richard & Gilbert, Marius & Hogerwerf, Lenny & Wallace, Rodrick & Holmberg, Mollie, 2015. "The dawn of Structural One Health: A new science tracking disease emergence along circuits of capital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 68-77.
    9. Müller, Felix C. & Kleibert, Jana M. & Ibert, Oliver, 2021. "Hiding in the Spotlight: Commodifying Nature and Geographies of Dissociation in the Fur-Fashion Complex," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 97(1), pages 89-112.
    10. Krithika Srinivasan, 2017. "Conservation biopolitics and the sustainability episteme," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(7), pages 1458-1476, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nick Bernards, 2019. "Tracing mutations of neoliberal development governance: ‘Fintech’, failure and the politics of marketization," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(7), pages 1442-1459, October.
    2. Walter, Christian, 2016. "The financial Logos: The framing of financial decision-making by mathematical modelling," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 597-604.
    3. Williams, James W., 2013. "Regulatory technologies, risky subjects, and financial boundaries: Governing ‘fraud’ in the financial markets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 544-558.
    4. Walter, Lars & Styhre, Alexander, 2020. "Nursing, bedside care, and the organization of expert knowledge: Professional work as agencement," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3).
    5. Antoine Ducastel & Ward Anseeuw, 2017. "Agriculture as an asset class: reshaping the South African farming sector," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 199-209, March.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5roa67nl3t9vmaafofq0ug2d9d is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5roa67nl3t9vmaafofq0ug2d9d is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Krarup, Troels, 2016. "Economic discourse and the European integration of financial infrastructures and financial markets," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 16/2, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    9. Sarah Bracking, 2012. "How do Investors Value Environmental Harm/Care? Private Equity Funds, Development Finance Institutions and the Partial Financialization of Nature-based Industries," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 271-293, January.
    10. Vollmer, Hendrik & Mennicken, Andrea & Preda, Alex, 2009. "Tracking the numbers: Across accounting and finance, organizations and markets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 619-637, July.
    11. Boussard, Valérie & Godechot, Olivier & Woloszko, Nicolas, 2016. "How to make a deal: The role of rankings and personal ties in creating trust in the M&A market," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 16/3, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    12. Matthew Zook & Michael H Grote, 2017. "The microgeographies of global finance: High-frequency trading and the construction of information inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(1), pages 121-140, January.
    13. Luis Suarez‐Villa, 2009. "The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community – By Stephen A. Marglin," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 533-541, September.
    14. Leonard Goke & Jens Weibezahn & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2021. "A collective blueprint, not a crystal ball: How expectations and participation shape long-term energy scenarios," Papers 2112.04821, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    15. Johnstone, David & Havyatt, David, 2022. "Sophistry and high electricity prices in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Bear, Laura, 2020. "Speculations on infrastructure: from colonial public works to a postcolonial global asset class on the Indian Railways 1840-2017," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103445, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Sabastine Ugbemuna Ugbaje & Thomas F.A. Bishop, 2020. "Hydrological Control of Vegetation Greenness Dynamics in Africa: A Multivariate Analysis Using Satellite Observed Soil Moisture, Terrestrial Water Storage and Precipitation," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.
    18. Möllering, Guido, 2009. "Market constitution analysis: A new framework applied to solar power technology markets," MPIfG Working Paper 09/7, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    19. Pierpaolo Andriani & Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, 2015. "Transactional innovation as performative action: transforming comparative advantage in the global coffee business," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 371-400, April.
    20. Thomas Wainwright, 2011. "Elite Knowledges: Framing Risk and the Geographies of Credit," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(3), pages 650-665, March.
    21. Philipp Heimberger & Jakob Kapeller, 2017. "The performativity of potential output: pro-cyclicality and path dependency in coordinating European fiscal policies," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 904-928, September.
    22. Aspers, Patrik & Darr, Asaf & Kohl, Sebastian, 2007. "An economic sociological look at economic anthropology," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 9(1), pages 3-10.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:11:p:2682-2699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.