Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Industrial Dynamics on the Commodity Frontier: managing time, space and form in mining, tree plantations and intensive aquaculture

Banoub, D.; Bridge, G.; Bustos, B.; Ertör, I.; González-Hidalgo, M.; de los Reyes, J.

Industrial Dynamics on the Commodity Frontier: managing time, space and form in mining, tree plantations and intensive aquaculture Thumbnail


Authors

D. Banoub

B. Bustos

I. Ertör

M. González-Hidalgo

J. de los Reyes



Abstract

Research in political ecology and agrarian political economy has shown how commodity frontiers are constituted through the appropriation and transformation of nature. This work identifies two broad processes of socio-metabolism associated with commodity frontiers: the spatial extension of nature-appropriation, via expanding territorial claims to the control and use of natural resources and associated acts of dispossession (commodity-widening); and the intensification of appropriation at existing sites, through socio-technical innovation and the growing capitalisation of production (commodity-deepening). While sympathetic, we have reservations about reducing frontier metabolism to either one or the other of these processes. We argue for more grounded examinations of how non-human nature is actively reconstituted at commodity frontiers, attuned to the diverse and specific ways in which socio-ecological processes are harnessed to dynamics of accumulation. To achieve this, we compare strategies of appropriation in three sectors often associated with the commodity frontier: gold mining, tree plantations, and intensive aquaculture. In doing so, we bring research on capitalism as an ecological regime into conversation with work on the industrial dynamics of ‘nature-facing’ sectors. By harnessing the analytical categories of time, space and form adopted by research on industrial dynamics, we (i) show how strategies of commodity-widening and deepening are shaped in significant ways by the biophysical characteristics of these sectors; and (ii) identify a third strategy, beyond commodity-widening and deepening, that involves the active reconstitution of socio-ecological systems - we term this ‘commodity-transformation.’

Citation

Banoub, D., Bridge, G., Bustos, B., Ertör, I., González-Hidalgo, M., & de los Reyes, J. (2021). Industrial Dynamics on the Commodity Frontier: managing time, space and form in mining, tree plantations and intensive aquaculture. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4(4), 1533-1559. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620963362

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 6, 2020
Online Publication Date Oct 21, 2020
Publication Date Dec 1, 2021
Deposit Date Sep 28, 2020
Publicly Available Date Sep 29, 2020
Journal Environment and planning E : nature and space.
Print ISSN 2514-8486
Electronic ISSN 2514-8494
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 4
Issue 4
Pages 1533-1559
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620963362
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1261554

Files


Accepted Journal Article (1.1 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).






You might also like



Downloadable Citations