Contribution short abstract

This paper explores how social metabolism operates as a technology of power that deliberately reorganizes territories for surplus extraction. Using El Salto, Mexico as a case, it connects Latin American and Marxist perspectives to reveal the political nature of metabolic disruption.

Contribution long abstract

The usefulness of social metabolism theory has largely focused on theoretical discussions about its ability to describe the material and energetic dimensions of different urban, industrial, or socio-ecological systems. However, we propose that its utility goes beyond its descriptive power, having an explanatory capacity for territorial processes. Building on the Hispanic-American approaches of González de Molina, Toledo, and Martínez-Alier, it is possible to integrate tangible and intangible elements into the understanding of social metabolism, which allows for a more precise comprehension of the territory. The territory is conceived as a complex system in which material, energetic, political, and cultural elements are ordered under several deliberately established purposes. Thus, social metabolism provides the necessary evidence not only to describe what is happening in the territory but also to understand how such order has been produced. This work seeks to contribute to the dialogue between Latin American perspectives on social metabolism and Marxist or European approaches to the “metabolic rift,” showing how both converge in analyzing deliberate territorial transformations. Based on this conceptualization, and through Haberl’s methodological approach and environmental history tools, we have described and demonstrated the processes of territorial sacrifice in El Salto, Jalisco, Mexico—one of the country’s main environmental hellscapes. We show that the extreme externalization of environmental and social costs necessary to sustain surplus extraction has been deliberate and is expressed in environmental impacts, social degradation, and urban-industrial reordering. These processes, particularly in the Global South, have been shaped by Northern dynamics often in complicity with national hegemonies.