“Value Grabbing” : A Political Ecology of Rent
Andreucci, Diego ; García-Lamarca, Melissa LU
; Wedekind, Jonah
and Swyngedouw, Erik
(2017)
In Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
28(3).
p.28-47
- Abstract
This paper aims to redress the under-appreciated significance of rent for political ecological analysis. We introduce the notion of value grabbing, defined as the appropriation of (surplus) value through rent. A concept that is analytically distinct from accumulation, rent is both a social relation and a distributional process that is increasingly central to the reproduction of contemporary capitalism. Emphasis is placed on the “grabbing” of value in order to shed light on the processes at work by which surplus value is distributed unevenly between different classes and fractions of classes. A focus on rent within political ecology, we argue, can help us distinguish between two organically related but analytically distinct “moments”:... (More)
This paper aims to redress the under-appreciated significance of rent for political ecological analysis. We introduce the notion of value grabbing, defined as the appropriation of (surplus) value through rent. A concept that is analytically distinct from accumulation, rent is both a social relation and a distributional process that is increasingly central to the reproduction of contemporary capitalism. Emphasis is placed on the “grabbing” of value in order to shed light on the processes at work by which surplus value is distributed unevenly between different classes and fractions of classes. A focus on rent within political ecology, we argue, can help us distinguish between two organically related but analytically distinct “moments”: (a) the creation of property rights that establish rent relations and (b) the struggle over the appropriation and distribution of surplus value generated by the rent relation itself. We explore some of the implications of this perspective for understanding new forms of socio-ecological struggles and their varied relations to the state. We maintain that a value-grabbing perspective has far-reaching consequences for political ecology, as it provides a sharp conceptual tool for situating a wide range of socio-ecological conflicts and movements as class struggles over value appropriation and distribution.
(Less)
- author
- Andreucci, Diego
; García-Lamarca, Melissa
LU
; Wedekind, Jonah
and Swyngedouw, Erik
- publishing date
- 2017-07-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- accumulation by dispossession, class struggle, political ecology, Rent, value
- in
- Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
- volume
- 28
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 20 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85009260161
- ISSN
- 1045-5752
- DOI
- 10.1080/10455752.2016.1278027
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: This research has benefitted from EC funding under Marie Curie Actions–Initial Training Networks–FP7–PEOPLE 2011 no. 289374 ENTITLE, the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J500094/1] and the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) at the University of Manchester. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Center for Political Ecology.
- id
- 2011a5bc-0289-40a4-8dda-fb98d6573bca
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-06 14:11:30
- date last changed
- 2024-02-07 09:52:14
@article{2011a5bc-0289-40a4-8dda-fb98d6573bca,
abstract = {{<p>This paper aims to redress the under-appreciated significance of rent for political ecological analysis. We introduce the notion of value grabbing, defined as the appropriation of (surplus) value through rent. A concept that is analytically distinct from accumulation, rent is both a social relation and a distributional process that is increasingly central to the reproduction of contemporary capitalism. Emphasis is placed on the “grabbing” of value in order to shed light on the processes at work by which surplus value is distributed unevenly between different classes and fractions of classes. A focus on rent within political ecology, we argue, can help us distinguish between two organically related but analytically distinct “moments”: (a) the creation of property rights that establish rent relations and (b) the struggle over the appropriation and distribution of surplus value generated by the rent relation itself. We explore some of the implications of this perspective for understanding new forms of socio-ecological struggles and their varied relations to the state. We maintain that a value-grabbing perspective has far-reaching consequences for political ecology, as it provides a sharp conceptual tool for situating a wide range of socio-ecological conflicts and movements as class struggles over value appropriation and distribution.</p>}},
author = {{Andreucci, Diego and García-Lamarca, Melissa and Wedekind, Jonah and Swyngedouw, Erik}},
issn = {{1045-5752}},
keywords = {{accumulation by dispossession; class struggle; political ecology; Rent; value}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{07}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{28--47}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Capitalism, Nature, Socialism}},
title = {{“Value Grabbing” : A Political Ecology of Rent}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2016.1278027}},
doi = {{10.1080/10455752.2016.1278027}},
volume = {{28}},
year = {{2017}},
}