Nature and non-valorization in capitalism

a reading of “Free Gifts: Capitalism and the politics of nature”

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2026/98115i

This review analyzes Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature by Alyssa Battistoni, situating its contribution within contemporary debates on capitalism and nature. It argues that, by emphasizing processes whose material significance does not appear in the form of value, the author tends to obscure the specific social mediations that historically organize the relationship between society and nature. Drawing on the relationship between nature and society in dialogue with the problem of expropriation, the review suggests that capitalist dynamics involve not only processes of invisibilization but also the continuous incorporation and commodification of new dimensions of nature. In this sense, the book’s main contribution lies in making visible the material conditions of capitalist reproduction, even as its limitations point to the need for an analysis more centered on the social mediations of accumulation.