Maron E. Greenleaf, a cultural anthropologist and political ecologist, delves into her research on forest carbon offsets in the Brazilian Amazon. She uncovers how green capitalism intertwines with environmental law and affects local communities, revealing the socio-political dynamics of carbon offset projects. Greenleaf also explores multi-species relations and the historical ties to the rubber industry, highlighting the tensions between conservation and development. The discussion addresses deforestation's economic impacts and the complex nature of land rights amid Brazil's evolving political landscape.
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insights INSIGHT
Uniqueness of Forest Carbon Offsets
Forest carbon offsets represent a unique commodity because their value depends on forest protection, not extraction.
This makes them a key case for studying green capitalism as it tries to address environmental degradation through capitalist means.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Immersive Research in Acre, Brazil
Maron spent 15 months in Acre, Brazil, conducting ethnographic and survey research on forest carbon.
She gained access through a research organization and built trust by showing respect for local struggles and efforts.
insights INSIGHT
Relational Networks Over Supply Chains
Forest carbon offsets elude traditional commodity supply chain analysis because they depend on keeping carbon "in place."
This shift from following a product to understanding relationships reveals complex social, ecological networks that give value to forest carbon.
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Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon
Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon
Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon
Maron E. Greenleaf
Maron E. Greenleaf's "Forest Lost" delves into the complexities of forest carbon offsets in the Brazilian Amazon, specifically within Acre. The book examines how the commodification of forest carbon, requiring preservation rather than extraction, interacts with existing social, economic, and environmental dynamics. Greenleaf challenges the simplistic narratives of green capitalism, revealing how efforts to protect the rainforest can inadvertently reinforce existing inequalities and marginalization. Through detailed ethnographic research, the book highlights the intricate relationships between humans, the environment, and economic forces, offering a nuanced understanding of green capitalism's promises and limitations. The study's findings contribute significantly to the ongoing discussions surrounding environmental sustainability and economic development in the Amazon.
Insurgent Citizenship Disjunctions Of Democracy And Modernity In Brazil
James Holston
James Holston's "Insurgent Citizenship" provides a critical analysis of democracy and modernity in Brazil. The book explores the complex relationship between citizenship, social movements, and political participation. Holston examines how marginalized groups challenge existing power structures and negotiate their rights within a rapidly changing society. The work highlights the tensions between formal legal frameworks and the lived experiences of citizens. It offers a nuanced understanding of the challenges and possibilities of democratic participation in a context marked by significant social and economic inequalities. The book remains a significant contribution to the study of citizenship and social movements in Latin America.
Hydraulic City
Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai
Nikhil Anand
Nikhil Anand's "Hydraulic City" examines the intricate relationship between water infrastructure, citizenship, and urban development in Mumbai, India. The book explores how water access and management shape social inequalities and political power dynamics. Anand's work highlights the complex ways in which water infrastructure is intertwined with broader issues of governance, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The book uses ethnographic methods to provide a rich and detailed account of the lived experiences of Mumbai's residents in relation to water. It challenges conventional understandings of urban planning and governance by centering the experiences of marginalized communities.
The Social life of things
Arjun Appadurai
Arjun Appadurai's "The Social Life of Things" explores the cultural and social significance of objects. It examines how objects move through different social contexts, acquiring new meanings and values along the way. The book challenges traditional anthropological perspectives on material culture, emphasizing the dynamic and fluid nature of objects' social lives. Appadurai's work highlights the interconnectedness of global flows of goods and ideas, and how objects embody cultural narratives and histories. It's a significant contribution to the field of anthropology and cultural studies, offering a nuanced understanding of the relationship between objects and society.
Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon (2024) is an ethnography of forest carbon offsets and the wider effort to make the living rainforest valuable in the Brazilian Amazon. Situated in the state of Acre, which continuously had to grapple with a complex positionality between frontier and periphery, Maron E. Greenleaf explores forest carbon offset to understand green capitalism. Commodifying forest carbon offset requires keeping carbon in place through forest protection and valuation, unlike other forest commodities – for example Açaí berries, which also feature in the ethnography – that involve extraction. Initially set out to do a supply chain analysis, Greenleaf instead wrote a well-thought-out account disentangling the relationships at play in a place which at the time was celebrated for being ‘a leader in forest- focused development’, through tracing the complexity of the uneven, contingent and contesting cultural, material and multispecies relations involved in making forest carbon valuable. At the same time, she illustrates how forest carbon’s commodification turned it into a source of redistributable public environmental wealth and how green capitalism can also reinforce just the marginalization it seeks to combat. By outlining these complex relations and tensions, Greenleaf elucidates broader efforts to create a capitalism suited to the Anthropocene and those efforts’ alluring promises and vexing failures.
Mentioned in this episode:
Anand, Nikhil. Hydraulic City: Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai. Duke University Press, 2017.
Appadurai, Arjun, et al. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Edited by Arjun Appadurai, Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Holston, James. Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. Princeton University Press, 2008.
Maron E. Greenleaf is a cultural anthropologist, political ecologist and legal scholar and currently Assistant Professor at the Anthropology Department at Dartmouth. She is interested in how human and more-than-human relationships are shaped through efforts linked to environmental crisis. Her topics of interest include landscapes, green economies, environmental justice and land rights.
Olivia Bianchi is a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford, currently finishing the MSc program in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology. Her interests include anthropological inquiries into materials, especially textiles, as well as the topics of sustainability and waste more generally.
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