VALUE/S UNDERGROUND, COLLECTIVE ETHOS, AND THE CLASSIFICATORY LOGIC OF VENEZUELA'S CAVE SURVEY. Issue 4 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pérez, María Alejandra; Herrera, Francisco F.
• Is Part Of: Geographical review. Volume 110:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 575
• Page End: 594
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: boundary object -- maps -- underground -- value -- values -- Venezuela; Geography -- Periodicals; 910
• DOI: 10.1080/00167428.2019.1689504
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-7428

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Building on reinvigorated scholarly debates on the concept of value, this paper examines forms of valuation that coexist with and challenge those typically associated with capitalist natures. Based on archival, ethnographic, and interview data, we analyze a historical case of the Venezuelan Society of Speleology (SVE) that since 1967 has been exploring and mapping the country's caves. Its results are published in a national cave survey that the group manages. Not only is each cave entry the representation and materialization of the group's volunteer efforts. Each is also part of a relational regime of valuation by which all caves are worth mapping. The survey's classificatory logic not only transforms underground value, it also acts as boundary object bringing together diverse actors and promoting the SVE's collective ethos, at least in theory, of valuing all members. The survey is the fulcrum of distinct regimes of valuation, wherein value and values are two sides of the same coin. The spaces where these value/s are enacted matters, suggesting the critical contributions that geographers can make in understanding the spatial qualities that contribute to—or hinder—the materialization of certain regimes of valuation over others.