Nature, Labour and Agriculture: Towards Common Ground in New Histories of Capitalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98
Author(s):  
Julie McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Family Farming ◽  
Environmental System ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Ecological View ◽  
Resource Perspective ◽  
Capital Value

Goods developed and exchanged in the production of capital value are commodified nature that is acted upon by humans. Yet new histories of capitalism have for the most part ignored nature as impacted by this economic, social, and environmental system, and the agency of nature in commodification processes. This article responds to the call from a leading historian of capitalism to consider “the countryside” as a neglected geography of human-nature relations that is integral to generating capital value. It asks whether co-exploitation of “the soil and the worker,” as Marx stated of industrialising agriculture in Britain, also occurred in Australia. To answer this, I have drawn together histories of environment, economy, and labour that are concerned with soils and labour for agriculture, which has resulted in a twofold conclusion. First, it is a feature of capitalist production in Australia that the tenacity of “yeoman” or family farming as the model for Australian market-based agriculture did not exploit labour. Farming has, however, transformed Australian soils in many places from their natural state. This transformation is viewed as necessary from a resource perspective but damaging from an ecological view. Second, Australian historians of labour and environment do not participate in international debates about whether or how to consider the historical intersection of nature and labour, or, indeed, nature, labour, and capitalism. The reasons for this are historical and methodological. The environment-labour divide among historians is relevant as global environmental and social crises motivate the search for new sources and relational methods to historicise these connected crises.

The Oxford Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Ongoing Functioning

The second edition of The Oxford Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology captures the history, current status, and future prospects of personality and social psychology—presented not as a set of parallel accounts, but as an integrated perspective on the behavior of persons in social contexts. This handbook combines these two fields in a single integrated volume, offering a unique and generative agenda for psychology. It is dedicated to the proposition that personality and social psychology are best viewed in conjunction with one another and that the synergy to be gained from considering links between the two fields can do much to move both fields forward and to enrich our understanding of human nature. Such interdependence is particularly crucial if one wishes to address the ongoing functioning of persons in their natural environments, where splits between person and situation are not so easily fashioned. The chapters of the Handbook weave together work from personality and social psychology, not only in areas of long-standing concern, but also in newly emerging fields of inquiry, addressing both distinctive contributions and common ground. In so doing, they offer compelling evidence for the power and the potential of an integrated approach to personality and social psychology.

Fielding and Richardson

PMLA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-388
Author(s):  
William Park
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
General Type ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Tom Jones ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

But the Discovery [of when to laugh and when to cry] was reserved for this Age, and there are two Authors now living in this Metropolis, who have found out the Art, and both brother Biographers, the one of Tom Jones, and the other of Clarissa.author of Charlotte SummersRather than discuss the differences which separate Fielding and Richardson, I propose to survey the common ground which they share with each other and with other novelists of the 1740's and 50's. In other words I am suggesting that these two masters, their contemporaries, and followers have made use of the same materials and that as a result the English novels of the mid-eighteenth century may be regarded as a distinct historic version of a general type of literature. Most readers, it seems to me, do not make this distinction. They either think that the novel is always the same, or they believe that one particular group of novels, such as those written in the early twentieth century, is the form itself. In my opinion, however, we should think of the novel as we do of the drama. No one kind of drama, such as Elizabethan comedy or Restoration comedy, is the drama itself; instead, each is a particular manifestation of the general type. Each kind bears some relationship to the others, but at the same time each has its own identity, which we usually call its conventions. By conventions I mean not only stock characters, situations, and themes, but also notions and assumptions about the novel, human nature, society, and the cosmos itself. If we compare one kind of novel to another without first considering the conventions of each, we are likely to make the same mistake that Thomas Rymer did when he blamed Shakespeare for not conforming to the canons of classical French drama.

Environmental and Climate Change Issues in Africa

2014 ◽  
pp. 602-619
Author(s):  
Tomonori Sudo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Environmental Goods ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Environmental Capital ◽  
Capital Value ◽  
Environmental Goods And Services

Africa’s environmental capital is an asset for African people. However, Africa’s ecological footprint is increasing and is close to exceeding the continent’s biocapacity. Therefore, shifting to “green growth” is an option to achieve sustainable development, and Africa is well placed to generate benefits from existing environmental capital and latecomer’s advantage. One challenge is how to realize the conversion of environmental capital value into economic value. The valuation of environmental goods and services is a challenge. However, Africa faces the risk of global environmental problems, such as climate change. Even though Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions are limited compared to developed countries and emerging economies, climate change may have a more severe impact. Although the scale and impact of climate change is uncertain, it will lead to the loss of accumulated developmental benefit for Africa. This issue has been long debated, but no best solution has been identified, so further studies are necessary.

scholarly journals Dokriani glacier(Dingarh glacier) and its geological analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanuj Shukla ◽  
Sanjay Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Garhwal Himalaya ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Mass ◽  
Environmental System ◽  
Terminal Moraine ◽  
Environmental Processes ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Five Phases ◽  
Geomorphological Analysis

The study of geomorphological system not only gives information about environmental processes operating there but also relate them whith global environmental system. The geomorphological analysis of Dokriani glacier, Garhwal Himalaya shows five phases of glacial advancement and retreat in the form of well preserved lateral and terminal moraines. The observed retreat rate of glacier in last two decades is about 17.2 m/yr which represents its negative mass balance followed by change in snout position, area and surface height. The farthest glacier expansion of the valley represented as terminal moraine is situated at 8.3 km from present day snout. Whereas, the other sucsessive glacial stages has followed the similar fashion of glacial advancement due to climatic sensitiveness.

scholarly journals An Overview of Violence as a Vice of Consent

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-164
Author(s):  
Loredana VLAD ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

People are considered bio-psycho-social beings. From the beginning of mankind, violence as part of human nature has manifested itself in relation to the other through the crime committed by Cain against his brother Abel. As time passed, it was found that a form of protection is needed to prolong the life of the individual, and thus by accepting the "social contract", man gave up his natural state in which freedom was absolute, in order to obey the law. In this paper I will bring to the fore a series of considerations with a focus on violence, emphasizing the idea of the vice of consent.

Culture and Difference

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farah Godrej
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Political Approach

Can non-Western traditions offer the West intellectual resources to re-conceptualize the human–nature relationship, and transform our ethical relationship to the natural world? This essay argues that there have been two kinds of approaches to this question: first, an almost purely ethical approach that is termed “civilizational,” which follows the logic inherent in biocentric critiques of Western anthropocentrism and instrumentalism; and second, a more political approach which is called “neo-Gandhian,” which takes inspiration from the political thinking of Mahatma Gandhi. After describing each approach at length, the chapter argues that the latter is a more sophisticated way to turn to non-Western traditions for environmentally just solutions to the global environmental crisis. It not only avoids reproducing the binaries and dichotomies to which the former approach seems indebted, but it also marries normative environmental concerns with practical, material concerns and explicitly political critique and action.

Embodied interdisciplinarity: what is the role of polymaths in environmental research?

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIETTE C. YOUNG ◽  
MARIELLA MARZANO
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches

SUMMARYInterdisciplinarity can be interpreted broadly as an active, multi-faceted learning process between researchers from different disciplines to create a common ground for a special purpose. Interdisciplinary approaches are regarded as necessary in environmental research, especially in view of global environmental change. However, some argue there is a lack of genuine interdisciplinarity in environmental research. Polymaths can play a potentially important role in environmental research. Environmental polymaths can enhance the effectiveness of interdisciplinarity through their knowledge and understanding of different disciplinary languages, epistemologies and methodologies, and as such, should be acknowledged more explicitly in interdisciplinary discussions.

scholarly journals What determines the values of environmental benefits? Evidence from a worldwide survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayo Murakami ◽  
Norihiro Itsubo ◽  
Koichi Kuriyama
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
Economic Valuation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
People’S Perceptions

Abstract One of the key obstacles to building international cooperation for environmental problems is the fact that environmental benefits are valued differently in different countries. But where does the disparity come from? This study gives an answer to this question by analysing large-scale survey data collected across G20 countries. Combining lifecycle impact assessment and economic valuation techniques, we found that people's perceptions of environmental benefits are in fact diverse, but are highly correlated with a few social indicators such as life expectancy, the Gini index, and subjective well-being. Our findings suggest that improving these social indicators in otherwise ill-equipped countries will facilitate convergence of people's perceptions and will thereby establish a common ground for tackling global environmental issues.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document