Geography

Privatizing conditions of production: Trade agreements as neoliberal environmental governance

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

In this chapter and in the original, more detailed version in Geoforum, I argue that recent multilateral trade agreements, particularly the sweeping new protections they provide for investors, are redefining property rights and reshaping environmental governance in ways that are central to the neoliberalization of environmental governance. My central argument is that in addition to furthering the centuries-long process of the enclosure of nature under capitalism, the neoliberal agenda of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) and similar trade agreements also involves something new: the privitization, or primitive accumulation, of conditions of production.

Publication Title

Neoliberal Environments: False Promises and Unnatural Consequences

Publication Date

7-4-2007

First Page

38

Last Page

50

ISBN

9780203946848

DOI

10.4324/9780203946848

Keywords

neoliberalism, NAFTA, privitization, trade agreements

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