Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Tragedy of the Commodity

The Tragedy of the Commodity This article develops a critique of the tragedy of the commons theory that is frequently applied to explain fisheries decline. In its place the authors offer the tragedy of the commodity as an alternative framework that better explains resource overexploitation and environmental degradation. They use a political economic analysis to discuss the social and ecological transformations that have occurred in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, with an emphasis on the Sicilian traditional trap fishery. Examining this case, the authors argue that Marx’s explanation of capitalist private property, commodity production, and the general formula for capital provide powerful theoretical guides for clarifying the social relations of production that have driven the overexploitation of fisheries in the recent past. Relying on historical and qualitative data, the case study illustrates the ways in which the social imperative of capitalist commodity production toward accumulating surplus-value directs production, reorganizes social relations, and transforms nature into an instrumental input that can more easily serve the needs of capital. The resulting ecological problems demonstrate the tragedy of the commodity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Organization & Environment SAGE

The Tragedy of the Commodity

Longo, Stefano B.; Clausen, Rebecca
Organization & Environment , Volume 24 (3): 17 – Sep 1, 2011
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/the-tragedy-of-the-commodity-w8XfKCC1g0

References (82)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© SAGE Publications 2011
ISSN
1086-0266
eISSN
1552-7417
DOI
10.1177/1086026611419860
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article develops a critique of the tragedy of the commons theory that is frequently applied to explain fisheries decline. In its place the authors offer the tragedy of the commodity as an alternative framework that better explains resource overexploitation and environmental degradation. They use a political economic analysis to discuss the social and ecological transformations that have occurred in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, with an emphasis on the Sicilian traditional trap fishery. Examining this case, the authors argue that Marx’s explanation of capitalist private property, commodity production, and the general formula for capital provide powerful theoretical guides for clarifying the social relations of production that have driven the overexploitation of fisheries in the recent past. Relying on historical and qualitative data, the case study illustrates the ways in which the social imperative of capitalist commodity production toward accumulating surplus-value directs production, reorganizes social relations, and transforms nature into an instrumental input that can more easily serve the needs of capital. The resulting ecological problems demonstrate the tragedy of the commodity.

Journal

Organization & Environment – SAGE

Published: Sep 1, 2011

There are no references for this article.