Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork on the effects of deforestation in northern Argentina, this paper examines the materiality of atmospheric events such as wind storms or droughts through the concepts of ambient thickness and terrain: that is, of the ambient intensities that in the form of heat or wind affect human mobility, visibility, and experiences of terrain.

Paper long abstract:

The concepts of “place” and “territory” have been crucial in the humanities to understand the historical, social, and political nature of space. But the anthropocentrism of these terms is also unable to explain those dimensions of space that are not human-centered, like atmospheric events such as droughts and wind storms. In this paper, I draw on my fieldwork on the soy frontiers of northern Argentina to argue that making sense of these atmospheric events requires much more than analyzing “time” and “the weather” as intrinsic to space, place, or territory. This move also demands a theory of space as terrain. In particular, I propose that the elusive and shifting dimensions of terrain can be best examined through the concept of “ambient thickness”: that is, the ambient physical intensities that in the form of cold, heat, rain, wind, dust, or snow affect human mobility, visibility, and sensory experience. I examine, in particular, how the elusive and shifting materiality of terrain’s ambient thickness is theoretically important to understand the materiality of the spatial transformations generated by global warming.