Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.

P177


Metabolism matters: on spatial production through more-than-human material-energetic exchanges 
Convenors:
Eline van Oosten (University of Amsterdam)
Tullio Maia (University of Amsterdam)
Herre de Bondt (University of Roehampton)
Send message to Convenors
Format:
Traditional Open Panel
Location:
HG-11A24
Sessions:
Friday 19 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam

Short Abstract:

At its core, metabolism is about exchange and transformation of energy and matter, traditionally known as stoffwechsel. How can the concept of metabolism help us understand more-than-human relations spanning from the internal workings of guts and bodies to broader urban, rural and planetary scales?

Long Abstract:

Bacteria aid mammalian digestion, while plants, fungi, and earthworms alter and transform soil chemistry. Grazing mammals' manure revitalizes plants elsewhere. These interactions operate and are transformed through metabolic systems at various scales. At its core, metabolism is about the exchange and transformation of energy and matter resulting from biochemical processes, traditionally known as stoffwechsel. While rooted in biology, the concept of metabolism and metabolic thinking in recent years inspired philosophical and social scientific thought (Landecker, 2013) to consider spaces as systems whose homeostasis is constantly being produced and destabilized by complex more-than-human networks. Human agency is inherently situated in these networks and any agentive action can be understood as a metabolic agency interfering in the exchange of energy and matter (Broto, Allen and Rapoport, 2012).

We propose the concept of metabolism as a framework to explore more-than-human relations because of (1) its focus on systems of interlinked processes (Landecker, 2019), (2) its exploration of the exchange of matter and energy between various human and more-than-human actors (3) its attention to bodily processes. In this panel, we welcome discussants to think how metabolism can help us understand more-than-human relations spanning from the internal workings of guts and bodies to broader urban, rural and planetary scales. We highly encourage contributions that engage with the concept of metabolism through various disciplines and perspectives in a dialogue with the following themes:

- How metabolic more-than-human flows and transformations co-produce space such as farms, cities, forests and so on.

- Metabolic perspectives on global environmental challenges and their local manifestations.

- Political metabolisms of life and death/ (bio and/or necro)political metabolisms.

- Methodologies for studying metabolism through fieldwork and empirical research that showcase examples of metabolism as an effective analytic tool to look at multispecies encounters or unravel novel or underrepresented forms of metabolism

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Friday 19 July, 2024, -