The Neoliberalization of Nature: Governance, Privatization, Enclosure and Valuation

Nik Heynen and Paul Robbins, CAPITALISM NATURE SOCIALISM VOLUME 16 NUMBER 1 (MARCH 2005)

Too often, notions of neoliberalism are fetishized so that it comes to appear as a
single, monolithic and undifferentiated process that is somehow distinct from capital-
ism, rather than as a diverse and interlinked set of practices that reflects a heightened,
evolved and more destructive form of capitalism. As opposed to an ontological
category with its own set of definitions and meanings, we stress the need to consider
neoliberalization as a process instead of neoliberalism as a “thing.”
Perhaps most problematic – and certainly contributing to the triumph of narrow
capitalist interests – is the way neoliberal ideology has been presented as an inevitable
and natural state. With certainty and conviction, neoliberal apologists have convinced
friends and foes alike that neoliberalization is fated, inescapable, and evolutionary.3
The invocation of a “politics of inevitability” make this political project especially
interesting in its encounter with the nonhuman world, as both “neoliberalism” and
“nature” have both too often been treated as static, inert, and as things unto
themselves.