Finding Dialectical Materialism through Soils Research

Mauro, Salvatore Engel‐Di

doi:10.1177/194277861901200208

Cited by 2 publications

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References 23 publications

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“…What I have outlined above also describes the major contours of my intellectual trajectory since the early 1990s, a path that continues to unfold and I hope others will undertake and critically develop, especially physical geographers. I have already expressed in other pages of this journal what Marxism has meant to me (Mauro and Engel-Di Mauro, 2019). As a brief reiteration, as someone endlessly enthused by soils yet marginally enmeshed in physical geography, I see Marxism as offering multiple avenues to turn my work into something politically useful towards overcoming capitalism.…”

Section: A Marxism For Physical Geographersmentioning

confidence: 95%

Biophysical questions: Relating Marxism to physical geography

Mauro

2021

Human Geography

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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.

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Section: A Marxism For Physical Geographersmentioning

confidence: 95%

Biophysical questions: Relating Marxism to physical geography

Mauro

2021

Human Geography

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Thinking as an Engelsian

Royle

2021

Human Geography

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In this essay, I address the question of how Marxism influences our thought and action as radical intellectuals by focusing on Friedrich Engels’ work, Dialectics of Nature, the way it has been taken up in critical environmental studies and how Engels’ thinking has influenced me. In later life, Engels made important contributions on topics that are distinct from Marx's economic work. He attempted to apply dialectical methods to the “natural sciences” and he also used his knowledge of anthropology to produce a study of the historical origins of private property and women's oppression. In both cases he has been accused of adopting a positivist approach that lacks the emphasis on human agency found in Marx. Here, I challenge this view by showing how Engels’ work has been of use to practicing scientists – particularly to Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin in their book The Dialectical Biologist. I further argue that this understanding of dialectics is fully commensurable and actually advances an approach to Marxism that is based on human self-emancipation. As an undergraduate biology student these scientists inspired me with their approach to their subject as well as their activism. The essay concludes with some brief thoughts on the importance and limitations of adopting a Marxist method when considering socio-environmental change.

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Finding Dialectical Materialism through Soils Research

Cited by 2 publications

References 23 publications

Biophysical questions: Relating Marxism to physical geography

Biophysical questions: Relating Marxism to physical geography

Thinking as an Engelsian

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