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Paper short abstract

This paper develops three conceptual metaphors with analytic value for refining environmental ethnography through sand as both matter and method, highlighting how sandy admixtures unsettle boundaries among geological, organic, and anthropogenic processes.

Paper long abstract

From shorelines remade by sea-level rise to extractive enterprise, urban construction and rural terraforming, sand is a preeminent indicator of human induced global disturbance forming the substrate of Anthropocene lives. This conceptual paper presents work developed in a special issue published in Spring/Summer 2026, edited by presenters, to argue that sustained attention to sand and sandy admixtures offers a productive way to refine environmental ethnography. While geoscientific classifications distinguish sand through size and mineral composition, an ethnographic perspective brings into view a wider field of sandy substances, including sediments produced through everyday consumption, infrastructural degradation, and intensifying industrial activity. These mixtures increasingly unsettle analytical separations between geological, organic, and anthropogenic materials and call for approaches capable of grasping their shifting formations and social consequences.

The paper outlines three conceptual metaphors for approaching sand as both matter and method. 'Granular particularism,' offers a framework to trace the heterogenous materials and scales of intertwined human and geological substances and practices. 'Sedimentary configuration' provides a means to the play of fixity and flow characterizing sand-based geosocial formations. 'Compositional politics' makes evident the unsettled alliances and inherent inequalities between human and more-than-human actors that derive value from sand’s utility to fostering life and livelihood. By centering sand as an analytic, the paper advances a methodological orientation attentive to the subtle material entanglements of Anthropocene life and demonstrates how environmental ethnography can benefit from closer engagement with sedimented forms and processes.