Non-human labour: the work of Earth Others

Ecosystem services are one way to describe all of the things the environment does for humans. This has mostly resulted in an oversimplification of how ecosystem processes work in order to create markets for different environmental ‘services’. Examining non-human organisms and earth processes through the lens of labour practices, we can include the work of Earth Others in a diverse economies framework. This allows for a shift away from capitalocentric ecosystem services framings towards systems of labour exchange based on interdependencies, more accurately representing the complexity of ecological relationships. To develop this alternative system the authors draw on the concept of econo-ecologies to examine moments of engagement as forms of work that build and maintain interconnected values between people and nature. What results from this analysis is the theorization of new economic subject positions inhabited by members of a community composed of a collection of humans and Earth Others.