The social reappropriation of nature

Abstract

Ecological economics is based on a principle of incommensurability. No economic, ecological or technological instrument can establish the real value of Nature in the economy: heterogeneous physical, biological, economic, and cultural processes are involved in the comparative evaluation of economic, energy, and environmental rationalities. The value of Nature grows beyond the ecological costs of development. The ecological costs are imposed to the economic system by means of social resistance to the capitalization of Nature, giving rise to new democratic values and cultural rights that reflect how different social groups, in different ecological and social contexts, re-signify and value Nature. Radical environmentalism is constructing and grounding a new concept of environment as the potential for alternative development and a principle of bio-cultural diversity and ecological difference.