Marxism and the production of nature

Authors

Noel Castree, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

88875

Publication Details

Castree, N. (2000). Marxism and the production of nature. Capital and Class, 24 (3), 5-36.

Abstract

This essay surveys a century of debate on the Marx-nature question. It seeks to expose, critique and reformulate a set of foundational assumptions which, it is argued, have informed this debate. Three main arguments are put forward. First, it is suggested that successive attempts to expound a Marxian theory of nature have see-sawed between naturalistic and social constructionist positions. Second, as such many Marxist theories of nature are shown (ironically) to have much in common with forms of bourgeois and anti-bourgeois environmentalism they otherwise oppose. Finally, as a way out of the impasse of Marxian thinking on nature, a conception of the production of nature is tentatively put forward