Papers
No. 4 (2025)
Metabolism in geographical thought: its development and future prospects
Abstract
The concept of metabolism has been used in geography for several decades, although its meaning has evolved over time. This paper presents a critical review of the geographical literature that has employed metabolism as a key element in the development of theories, discourses, and practices. The analysis identifies three main currents, each characterized by different ontological stances: two of them use metabolism as either an interpretative or generative metaphor, while the third assigns it an epistemic value. Building on this latter perspective, the paper establishes a dialogue between the epistemic approach and the definition of metabolism developed within relational biology. In conclusion, the study highlights how three fundamental concepts – multiscalarity, impredicativity, and anticipation – can contribute to shaping a new model of “metabolic geographies” for both qualitative and quantitative territorial analysis.
References
- Acevedo-De-los-Ríos A., Chumpitaz-Requena F.R., Rondinel-Oviedo D.R. (2024).
- Analysis of urban metabolism in an informal settlement using the MuSIASEM method in Lima. Cleaner Environmental Systems, 13: 100189. DOI: 10.1016/j.cesys.2024.100189.
- Angelo H., Wachsmuth D. (2015). Urbanizing urban political ecology: A critique of methodological cityism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(1): 16-27. DOI: 10.1111/1468-24 27.12105.
- Arboleda M. (2016). In the nature of the non-city: Expanded infrastructural networks and the political ecology of planetary urbanisation. Antipode, 48(2): 233-251. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12175.
- Arboleda M. (2020a). Planetary mine: Territories of extraction under late capitalism. Londra: Verso Books.
- Arboleda M. (2020b). From spaces to circuits of extraction: Value in process and the mine/city nexus. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 31(3): 114-133. DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2019.1656758.
- Ariza-Montobbio P., Farrell K.N., Gamboa G., Ramos-Martin J. (2014). Integrating energy and land-use planning: socio-metabolic profiles along the rural-urban continuum in Catalonia (Spain). Environment, Development and Sustainability, 16: 925-956. DOI: 10.1007/s10668-014-9533-x.
- Arizpe N., Ramos-Martín J., Giampietro M. (2014). An assessment of the metabolic profile implied by agricultural change in two rural communities in the North of Argentina. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 16: 903-924. DOI: 10.1007/s10668-014-9532-y.
- Armondi S. (2017). Crisi e sviluppo nella metamorfosi del modello spaziale metropolitano. In Balducci A., Fedeli V., Curci F., Metabolismo e regionalizzazione dell’urbano. Esplorazioni nella regione urbana Milanese (pp. 141-153). Milano: Edizioni Guerini e Associati.
- Ayres R.U., Kneese A.V. (1969). Production, consumption, and externalities. The American Economic Review, 59(3): 282-297.
