Class 2: Green materialism Christos Zografos, PhD Institute of Environmental Science & Technology (ICTA) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain christos.zografos@uab.cat Power, politics and environmental change MA Environmental Humanities 2016-17 Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Intro •Purpose: present the green materialism explanation of why environmental change happens • •Reason why you should know this: –Because political ecology (field we draw from in this course to study and understand environmental change) tacitly or explicitly assumes several materialist principles – 1 Class outline •Discuss answers to student assignment •Go deeper into the details of the green materialism explanation of why and how environmental change (degradation) happens, and with what implications •Outline links: materialism and study of environmental change 2 But before: why “materialism”? •Social and cultural systems (e.g. legislation, types of government, literature, etc.) are based in historical (and changing) material conditions and relations – real stuff (Robbins, 2004) • •Courbet ‘The Stonebreakers’ (source: undsoc.org) 3 Social and cultural systems (e.g. legislation, types of government, literature, etc.) are based in historical (and changing) material conditions and relations – real stuff Challenge: idealism, that ideas, philosophy, consciousness are the engines of history Materialism: human interaction with world of natural objects provides “base” upon which law, politics, culture and society (super-structure) are formed (Robbins, 2012, p.54) CLASS ASSIGNMENT 1 •Robbins explains that “[f]or materialists, environmental degradation is... inevitable in capitalism” (p. 46). •Explain in your own words why is this the case, and how does such degradation occurs 4 Answer •Robbins, 2004, p.51: •“all progress in capitalistic agriculture is the progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time, is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility” (Marx, 1967) 5 Elements to the answer: uValue surplus (with labour example) uCapital accumulation (with labour e.g.) uExtracting surplus from nature Because capitalism requires the extraction of value surplus from labour and nature which involves extracting more than what you re-invest in nature (and compensate labour) Value surplus: what is it? •Marx (1867) –“Yield, profit or return on production capital invested, i.e. amount of the increase in the value of capital…” –…after it goes through the production process 6 Zentralbibliothek Zürich Das Kapital Marx 1867.jpg Value Surplus 1/4 surplus value = new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour in the production process; excess: appropriated by capitalist as profit when products are sold How is it generated? Source: http://utama.info/ Worker wage: 10 Kč/ hour Worker prod (machine): 10Kč/ 15min = 40Kč/ hour Owner (shoe in mkt) = 40Kč Operational costs = 20Kč/ h Invest (put in prod) = 30Kč/ hour – get back 40Kč/ hour Profit (above value investment) = 10Kč/ hour 7 Example: shoe production with a machine that produces shoes Worker wage: 10 €/ hour Worker produces product worth = 10 € every 15 min = 40 €/hour uBecause worker is productive, can produce an output value > what it costs to hire him i.e. capitalist is paid 40 € when trading final product in market Operational costs (e.g. machine depreciation, materials) = 20 €/ h i.e. Investor puts 30 € in process (includes depreciation) and gets 40 € out of process Profit for capitalist: 10 €/ hour; i.e. has made 10 €> than value of his investment Why is it necessary? 8 http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com.es Source: http://freedombunker.com Capital accumulation Value surplus 3/4 –Making such easy money (appropriating work of others) is attractive for capitalist –But is also necessary for maintaining system (Kism) uIt leads to capital accumulation = net addition to existing wealth + a re-distribution (from labourer to capitalist) of (created) wealth uNew K is used to accumulate more K by re-investing in production process, financial assets, non-productive assets (e.g. works of art), human K, infrastructure, etc., i.e. on assets that permit creating more K uK accumulation is motor in engine of capitalist economy Extracting surplus from nature •Intensity of extraction > restoration 9 •Niger Delta (Nigeria) (Image: Sosialistisk Ungdom – SU/Flickr) Tar Sands from space (source: http://stephenleahy.net) rate and intensity of extraction > restoration uBy expropriating nature’s capital and underinvesting in restoration or repair of impacted ecological systems uTo make profit uCapitalist firm squeezes surplus from ecology i.e. degradation is inevitable result of capital accumulation, or else necessary condition to achieve surplus (profit), and capital accumulation TWO WAYS OF ACCUMULATING K 1.Original/ Primitive Accumulation 2.Accumulation by Dispossession 10 Original/ primitive accumulation Accumulation by dispossession: present, neo-liberal stage of capitalism Primitive accumulation •The question: how did some people managed to accumulate capital in the first place? 11 Source: http://pixgood.com The question: how did some people managed to accumulate capital in the first place? uAnd become (the class of) capitalists, i.e. those who have amassed capital? Harvey (2005) summarising Marx: PA entailed utaking land, e.g. enclosing it uexpelling a resident population (creating landless proletariat, who became cheap industrial workers) ureleasing land for private owners to buy and use it to accumulate K Preferred materialist example of PA: European (English) enclosures (16^th cent.) Open field system •Prevalent agri system in European Middle Ages based on manor-village • 12 Manorialism or Serfdom •2-3 large fields of small landholdings cultivated by tenants (or serfs) = peasant families/individuals •Woodland and pasture land for common use •Land belonging to lord of manor and church •Peasants live in village •Lord in big manor house Little land formally owned •Rights over land given to lord by crown •Tenant (contract) or serf (bound in land) rents (crop, labour, money) land (use) from lord + works land of lord Manorialism or Serfdom •Prevalent agri system in European Middle Ages based on manor-village • 13 Source: https://ashleycmuseum Manorialism or Serfdom Rent and labour demands may be exhausting •Tenants not free (“tied to the land”) to leave manor for other locations or occupations without penalty But tenants: firm user rights to cropland and common land passed down from generation to generation •Medieval lord could not evict tenant nor hire labour to replace him without legal cause •Manor lord is obliged to provide physical protection and justice to tenants (serfs) Enclosures turn land into commodity (to be bought and sold) and cancel not only this system of land use but also system of rights-obligations Primitive accumulation: example •English 16th – 19th century enclosures 14 Source: https://theliberi.wordpress.com English 16^th – 19^th century enclosures Common lands: privately owned, commonly used Based on tradition of common rights Arable farming in open fields (subsistence farming) Fencing (enclosing) land entitled to private owners Either buying common rights or law-and-use-of-force to enclose Dispossessed commoners become landless working force (class) used in industrial revolution (north England) Enclosed land: adoption of practices that generated more profit (increased profitability of large farms) uSheep that paid better for their wool (demand for English wool in 16^th cent) uWhen sheep prices declined (1650s): improved agricultural practices (fertilisers, new crops) and economies of scale Primitive (capital) accumulation and ecological degradation: 16-17th century Spain (Moore, 2003) – [The] "aridification" of the land hit particularly the small producers and led to further land concentration. While this process of exhausting the land led to inability to export, land concentration that resulted from it led to a further monetarization of productive relations, since "the inability of peasants ... and villagers to provide for their own subsistence by working their own land enlarged the internal [labour] market. – –Wallerstein (1980) • 15 "What western Europe needed in the 14^th and 15^th centuries was food (more calories and a better distribution of food values [in favor of the emergent core]) and fuel.” – result of population resurgence after Black Death? Those processes [increased demand for food and fuel] encouraged capitalist monoculture and prioritization short-run profits over sustainability In Spain, triennial rotations were given up, leading to soil exhaustion. "This situation led, in the years from 1570 to 1630, to the search for new domains, which were then similarly exhausted." Wallerstein's analysis more interesting : uNot only did primitive accumulation lead to ecological degradation uIn Spain, ecological degradation could lead to renewed primitive accumulation: u“Aridification of land…” (Wallerstein) QUOTE uRemember: if you pay less to L you get more surplus-> accumulate more K Accumulation by dispossession •Harvey (2004): –Neoliberal policies in western nations from 1970s onwards… –…result in centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few… –…by dispossessing the public of their wealth or land (publicly-owned assets, e.g. water, forests, etc.)… –…that pass to become private property •Privatisation: main practice 16 Reuters: Roy Letkey (source: www.abc.net.au) Harvey, 2004: … Four practices: 1.Privatization (major practice) 2.financialization 3.management and manipulation of crises 4.state redistributions E.g. Thatcher’s privatisation of social housing UK uIdea: pass from rental to ownership->control assets->increase wealth uHousing speculation for central location housing uPoorer populations in the periphery uNew homeowners: borrowing money (bank)-> increased profits (housing prices) transferred to banks Accumulation by dispossession: privatising water •The water sector, together with many others, has become one of the battlefields over which “accumulation by dispossession” tactics are waged, often won by capital, and occasionally lost.” (Swyngedouw, 2005) • 17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_jvlsGzXI Source: www.globalgiving.org Last 3 decades, water = central testing ground for implementing global + national neoliberal policies Privatization of water production and delivery services, particularly urban water supply systems, has become an important arena in which global capitalist companies operate in search of economic growth & profits The water sector, together with many others… “A world without water” documentary Min 32.40 – 40.55: www.youtube.com E.g. in Bolivia: privatisation of water distribution in the capital La Paz has led to lack of access to clean water for poorer users who were not able to pay the new “connection” fee to connect to clean water pipes running below their houses had to drink water from boreholes (reduced quality of drinking water->increased disease) Implications: environmental movements •Labour movement •Environmental movement 18 Image credit: america.gov/Flickr Pillage of nature must [inevitably] result in political response As labour movement = result of capital squeezing surplus out of labour’s work (worker’s exploitation) Environmental movement = result of exploitation of nature uParadox: in capitalism’s excesses lie the seeds of more sustainable and equitable practices Lessons learned 1/2 •3 materialist assumptions/ assertions tacit in PE (study environmental change and conflict): 1.Social and cultural relationships: rooted in economic interactions •Among people •Between people and non-human objects and systems 2.Exogenous imposition of unsustainable extractive regimes of accumulation results in environmental and social stress 3.Production for the global market leads to contradictions and dependencies • 19 Lessons learned 2/2 •All PE research engages with the broadly defined political economy –Systems that govern: use, overuse, degradation, and recovery of environment… –…structured into a larger social engine, which revolves around the control of nature and labour (Althusser & Balibar, 1970) 20 Classroom activity (35 min) •Own examples of capital accumulation linked to environmental degradation –Split into groups –Explain: who did what to whom, where and why? –15 min work into groups to generate this –20 min (5+5): feedback •5 min to present (each group) •5 min to comment (each group) •* If not possible (time lims) do this as one group in classroom 21 ADD THIS O/H TO AT LEAST QUICKLY EXPLAIN THE MAJOR PE STUDY USING THIS APPROACH Political economy of soil degradation •What he tries to explain? –Why, although there are half a century of policies and (int’l) programmes to deal with soil erosion (reduced productivity of soil), they have failed? –Usually: it’s the farmers to blame •What he finds? –The root causes of soil erosion are not to be found only at the site where land degradation occurs (Hertford, 1987): •Farmers are forced to degrade the land in order to delay their own destruction •By those who exploit them (the “haves”) within an int’l system of production –Capitalist production tends to encourage mining of soils (Robbins, 2012): •Farmers produce for int’l competitive markets, many times because of state-sponsored programmes (e.g. Malian cotton farmers, or intro crash crops, or agri modernisation programmes), at times promoted by int’l agencies (e.g. WB), or introduced by colonial powers (e.g. •In int’l competitive markets, when economic (profit) margins decline, costs and risks are passed downwards to individual producers, who try extract as much as possible in order to balance their losses •This is why they will more readily use pesticides, follow shorter fallowing (time left land to rest) periods, etc. to ensure they have a crop to sell •Similarly: this is why they will go deeper into the forest (encroach), to increase production and offset tighter prices for agricultural produce •Lost value of (degraded) forest (e.g. biodiversity lost) = extracted from its location to be accumulated in distant commodity markets (e.g. cotton market in London, NY, etc.) –Only if the threat to accumulation possibilities of “haves” (e.g. nat’l and multi-nat’l intermediaries) is substantial, soil conservation practices may be successful (implemented); this is because “haves” can adjust themselves to soil erosion (e.g. by making agreements with farmers in other countries, etc.) (Hertford, 1987)