Contribution short abstract

We identify a lack of attention to labour within metabolic research. Based on Urban Political Ecology, we argue that labour plays a central role in all metabolic processes and their transformation, and that it provides a productive entry point for dialogue across different approaches to metabolism.

Contribution long abstract

In Marx’ concept of social metabolism, human labour is crucial in its role of transforming nature into consumable products within a specific mode of production and, hence, mediating the dialectical metabolic relationship between nature and human beings. Accordingly, labour is at the centre of Marxist considerations of appropriating, democratizing and transforming metabolic relations. Despite the important role of urban metabolism in Urban Political Ecology (UPE) and the preoccupation with its politicization and democratization, there is, however, a considerable lack of scientific work concerned with this role of human labour.

Our contribution calls for human labour – comprising infrastructural and reproductive labour, as well as political (disruptive) work – to be brought to the fore as a central object of analysis in UPE. Departing from infrastructure studies and energy geography, we transfer the recently grown interest in human labour within these fields to the perspective of UPE. Engaging with human labour in its role of, first, maintaining and repairing infrastructure and, second, transforming urban energy metabolisms, we argue for the consideration of labour as a crucial analytical concept in the quest for more just and democratic metabolisms in times of crises and transformation. Recognising the relevance of labour also creates an opportunity to engage with its explicit, implicit, or even absent consideration in other frameworks, thereby providing a basis for fruitful conversations across diverse approaches to metabolism.