Value,Nature, and Labor: A Defense of Marx

In this theoretical intervention, I argue that Karl Marx’s theory of value remains a powerful way to understand nature–society relations under capitalism. I suggest environmentalist critiques often misunderstand Marx’s value theory as a theory that “values” workers over nature. His critical theory is better understood as an explanation of how capitalist value exploits both workers and the environment. My defense of Marxian value theory is articulated through five “theses.” I provide empirical illustration based on recent research into the nitrogen fertilizer industry. (1) Value theory does not refer to all values. (2) Marx’s contention that nature does not contribute to value helps us explain its degradation under capitalism. (3) Marx’s value theory rooted in production allows for a critique of environmental economic valuation schemes (e.g. payments for ecosystem services) which are based on neoclassical value theories rooted in consumption/exchange. (4) Value is abstract social labor, but that means it also abstracts from nature. (5) Capital does value certain parts of nature and that matters. I conclude by advocating a “value theory of nature” in the spirit of Diane Elson’s powerful articulation of Marx’s “value theory of labor.”     

Valuing the Earth and Each Other

In this short essay I briefly explore the utility of Marx’s theory for non-human nature and then proceed to consider his position on value after capitalism. Finally, I claim that many other types of theory contribute to the valuing of nature in the broad sense (beyond capitalism), and argue that proponents of these theories (along with Marxists) could not only learn from each other but also build affinity and solidarity in the construction of diverse economies and subjectivities. The “Leap Manifesto”, authored by representatives of Black Lives Matter, indigenous groups, unions, feminists, climate justice groups, and many others, is one example of the way forward.     

Conceptions of the good,rivalry, and liberal neutrality

Liberal neutrality is assumed to pertain to rival conceptions of the good. The nature of the rivalry between conceptions of the good is pivotal to the coherence, scope and realisation of liberal neutrality. Yet, liberal theorists have said very little about rivalry. This paper attempts to fill this gap by reviewing three conceptions of rivalry: incompatibility rivalry, intra-domain rivalry and state power rivalry. I argue that state power rivalry is the morally relevant conception of rivalry, and that it has significant implications for the scope and realisation of liberal neutrality. I conclude that in the light of state power rivalry, the only feasible liberal neutral state is a very minimal one.     

Reworking the metabolic rift: La Vía Campesina,agrarian citizenship,and food sovereignty

Amidst increasing concerns about climate change, food shortages, and widespread environmental degradation, a demand is emerging for ways to resolve longstanding social and ecological contradictions present in contemporary capitalist models of production and social organisation. This paper first discusses how agriculture, as the most intensive historical nexus between society and nature, has played a pivotal role in social and ecological change. I explore how agriculture has been integrally associated with successive metabolic ruptures between society and nature, and then argue that these ruptures have not only led to widespread rural dislocation and environmental degradation, but have also disrupted the practice of agrarian citizenship through a series of interlinked and evolving philosophical, ideological, and material conditions. The first section of the paper thus examines the de-linking of agriculture, citizenship, and nature as a result of ongoing cycles of a metabolic rift, as a ‘crucial law of motion’ and central contradiction of changing socio-ecological relations in the countryside. I then argue that new forms of agrarian resistance, exemplified by the contemporary international peasant movement La Vía Campesina's call for food sovereignty, create a potential to reframe and reconstitute an agrarian citizenship that reworks the metabolic rift between society and nature. A food sovereignty model founded on practices of agrarian citizenship and ecologically sustainable local food production is then analysed for its potential to challenge the dominant model of large-scale, capitalist, and export-based agriculture.     

论警务活动人权保障与人的本性

人的本性给予人权,并在一定的历史条件下居于一定的经济结构和文化发展中。为了自身的自由生存、自由生活、自由发展以能够真正掌握自己的命运,必须具有人权。警务活动的主客体作为世界的主体,都具有人的一般本质属性。警务活动保障人权必须把警务活动的对象当做自然存在物、社会存在物、意识存在物、主体存在物来把握。     

Green citizenship: a review and critique

This paper reviews the literature on green citizenship and argues that the concept of citizenship has done much to advance green theory building internally but that in order to deepen an already substantial area of scholarship, promote a more inclusive and emancipatory environmental politics, and augment their contribution to the larger body of citizenship studies, greens will need to broaden their approach to the concept. This review highlights the tendency within green theorizing to privilege particular conceptions of the natural world and humans' relations to it, and draws attention to the work of those scholars explicitly engaged in incorporating the social construction of nature into their theories of green citizenship. The essay concludes by identifying three particular areas in which green theorizing has contributed to citizenship studies.     

Why Do Social Work Practice Research?

Social work practice research focuses on researching all kinds of social work practice, including social work practice teaching, practitioner self-inquiry, and also social work services. In this article, first the dilemma of social work research in China will be analyzed; then the nature and position of social work research will be clarified; finally the procedure of practice research will be introduced. In short, the author intends to argue that as social work is a practice-oriented discipline, the creation of social work knowledge is for achieving social work professional goal and its research is practical and practice-oriented.     

生存或死亡--安提戈涅的自由

当生存要以丧失自由为前提,而自由则必须用牺牲生命为代价时,生命的价值是什么？当我们认同生命是一个过程时,那么生命在时间里的延续是不是尺度？而当这种延续是评价生命的尺度时,人与这世间的动物仍至所有的生物又有什么样的区别？本文通过安提戈涅的悲剧故事揭示了“生存与死亡”这一命题内所掩藏的一个巨大的吊诡, 并提出在人类自由中思想自由是最重要的观点。     

论侦查权的性质与特征

侦查权在我国被认为是一种司法权,这导致犯罪嫌疑人在认为侦查机关的行为违反法律规定时无权申请法院进行审查,这对于保护被追诉人的权利是极其不利的。从本质上来看,侦查权是一种执行权,这与行政权是一致的,而与司法权有着根本的差异。从基本特征来看,侦查权在价值与功能、体制与人员以及权力运作方面也与司法权有着根本的差异。     

论环境健康与政府环境责任

通过分析自然环境对人体健康的影响,指出环境健康问题的严重性,而在环境健康问题越来越严重的今天,根据法律规定,政府负有不可推卸的环境责任,根据政府对环境责任的错误认识提出了要狠抓落实环境民主,改进现有政府环境理念,达到环境善治的观点。