Mercantilization of nature, radical biocentrism, extractivism and human development. The inevitable paradoxes of a public policy that recognizes the intrinsic rights of nature

Abstract:

In this paper, we wish firstly to trace the economicist and productivist logic that determined the profound development of Western modernity; a logic that reached its peak in the market societies which were already operating at full capacity in some of the European industrial powers of the nineteenth century. Since then, the commercialisation of social and natural life has continued apace, as Karl Polanyi recognized and examined in depth. This model of civilisation, which became virtually universal towards the end of the twentieth century, met with nodes of counter-hegemonic resistance. One such node is to be found in the political discourses constructed on the basis of some of the learnings of the pre-Hispanic cultural world, linked to the Quechua notion of Sumak Kawsay, translated into Spanish as Buen Vivir, and which makes up a very powerful counterpart of the social and cultural development brought about by the overwhelming triumph of the market economy and its associated worldview. Extractivism, one of the most conspicuous results of this modern-western rationale, has been debated and opposed from these discursive spheres. However, when the public policies of a State located on the periphery of the capitalist world-system seek to foster equitable human development (with the fundamental goal of reducing poverty) and, at the same time, aim to recognize the intrinsic rights of nature, inevitable frictions, contradictions and paradoxes arise.

Año de publicación:

2018

Keywords:

• Radical biocentrism
• Mercantilization of nature
• Rights of nature
• Public Policies
• Extractivism

Fuente:

scopus