Biophysical questions: Relating Marxism to physical geography

Abstract

This intervention is to delineate an alternative to a largely capitalism-accommodating physical geography by discussing the relevance of Marxism. To illustrate this, I elaborate on major Marxist concepts. It turns out that some currents within physical geography converge with Marxist understandings of science and could be further enhanced by a Marxist framework, possibly by way of a recently emerging Critical Physical Geography (CPG). I conclude by sharing how Marxism resonates with my own projects involving soils.

Critical physical geographies of air, atmosphere, and climate

“…Therefore, this work serves as a call for human and physical geographers to explore both potential intersectional research collaborations with one another, and include marginalized populations—their knowledge, questions, and needs—wherever possible. Beginning to take this action actualizes the too often unrealized radical pluralistic potential of the discipline (Domosh 2017), and moves geography toward correcting for its missed opportunity in not sooner developing a dialectical materialist, self-reflexive physical geography (Engel-Di Mauro 2022, 133) that calls capitalist ways of life into question (Castree 2015). Taking a dialectical materialist approach to the climatology of thermal inequities centers the experiences and survival of marginalized populations in the ongoing contexts of settler colonization and capitalism.…”

“…The remainder of this section provides examples for how physical geographers and other geoscientists might, following Castree (2015) and Engel-Di Mauro (2022), situate their production of geophysical knowledge and practice in a political way that both critiques and changes the alienated condition of social-environmental relations produced by capitalism and demonstrates the potential of geography to address pressing socioenvironmental issues. Indeed, as Engel Di-Mauro (2022, 130) writes, "geography bears great potential to redirect at least some forms of biophysical science towards socialistically useful ends."…”

“…Presented with pressing social-environmental issues centering on the earth's atmosphere, geography appears well-positioned to incisively address these issues because of the diversity of knowledge-producing approaches within the discipline (Castree 2012; Domosh 2017). And, following Engel-Di Mauro (2022), critical physical geography—with its emphasis on flexible collaboration and focus on materiality as a starting point—emerges as a possible framework for physical geographers to produce grounded, empirical, and political knowledge that addresses both issues in the earth's atmosphere and their political-economic consequences and antecedents.…”

“…The remainder of this section provides examples for how physical geographers and other geoscientists might, following Castree (2015) and Engel-Di Mauro (2022), situate their production of geophysical knowledge and practice in a political way that both critiques and changes the alienated condition of social-environmental relations produced by capitalism and demonstrates the potential of geography to address pressing socio-environmental issues. Indeed, as Engel Di-Mauro (2022, 130) writes, “geography bears great potential to redirect at least some forms of biophysical science towards socialistically useful ends.” Examining and challenging unevenly experienced atmospheres forms the basis of a critical physical geography approach focused on the material relationship between the climate system and inequity, and provides critical physical geography with an agenda for future research and the production of a more just and livable world. These phenomena are written in the context of the United States, but may be applied to other countries or regions of the world based on climate impacts, adaptive capacity, systems resilience, and political-economic philosophies.…”

“…This review implicitly critiques siloed approaches used to address pressing societal issues by drawing attention to the complementary roles different fields of geographic inquiry can play in addressing inequalities associated with atmospheric processes and future climate change impacts. We build upon what Castree (2012) terms “engaged pluralism,” geography's “radical intradisciplinary potential” (Domosh 2017), and where Allen and Akpinar-Elci (2016) explain the need for “deeper, more meaningful relationships … within the research community” and that “disciplines must serve as lenses by which we view and interpret the world rather than barriers to progress.” We seek to further the notion that scientific research in physical geography can contribute to globally important political questions at the intersection of political economic systems and biophysical processes (Engel-Di Mauro 2022). Critical physical geography offers such a path forward for integrated scholarship on climate change (Colven and Thomson 2019; Goudie 2017; Hedberg et al 2017).…”