Circulation (fluid dynamics)

Positive economics

Physics

Neoclassical economics

Sociology

Archaeology

Work (physics)

Means of production

Pedagogy

Commodification

Politics

Engineering

Economy

Political science

Economics

Geography

Set (abstract data type)

Tracking (education)

Programming language

Data science

Human capital

Commodity

Computer science

Capital (architecture)

Biopower

Market economy

Financial capital

Mechanical engineering

Analytics

Thermodynamics

Progress in Human Geography

Relations between nature and capital have been a longstanding concern in the social sciences. Going beyond antinomies of posthumanist and political economic enquiry, this paper advances a set of relational analytics for incorporating liveliness into critical analyses of capital. Firstly, developing the concept of animal work, it shows how metabolic, ecological and affective labour become a productive economic force. Secondly, animating the commodity, it demonstrates how lively forces influence commodification and exchange, enabling or hindering accumulation. Thirdly, tracking animal circulation, it examines the logics of rendition that transform nonhuman life into capital. In conclusion, the paper develops a relational grammar for anatomizing the nature-capital dynamic, one that reorients the economic to be co-constituted by the ecological from the outset.

Animating capital: Work, commodities, circulation