A Theoretical Reflection on the Relationship between Nature and Capitalism

Authors

  • João Valente Aguiar Universidade do Porto - Portugal
  • Nádia Bastos Ministério da Educação – Portugal

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to recognize the articulation between the natural and contemporary global social sphere, in generic terms, the capitalist mode of production. Based on an analysis of the mechanisms of appropriation of nature by the social engendering of the accumulation of capital, it seeks to identify some of the forms of the contemporary commodification of nature. These commodified expressions of nature are connected to the dynamics of the structural crisis of capitalism. In methodological terms, it emphasizes a perspective of totality in the approach to the object of study, without reducing the empiric substrate to a homogenized entity. Therefore, the interactive process between nature and capitalism finds support in a set of mutual influences, of unequaled mediations of causality and contradictions.

Author Biographies

João Valente Aguiar, Universidade do Porto - Portugal

Doutorando em Sociologia pela Universidade do Porto (Portugal). Bolseiro de doutoramento pela FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).
Pesquisador do Instituto de Sociologia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (ISFLUP).
Editor da colecção de livros “Arte e Sociedade” na editora Apenas Livros (Lisboa).

Nádia Bastos, Ministério da Educação – Portugal

Professora do Ministério da Educação – Portugal Licenciatura em Educação, ramo Educação Visual e Tecnológica pela Escola Superior de Educação do Porto, Portugal Especialização em Ensino Especial.

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Published

2012-06-04

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2012): Relações sociais, desenvolvimento e questões ambientais

Section

Thematic space

License

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