THE ROLE OF DISTINCTION IN DIALECTICAL ANALYSES OF SOCIOECOLOGY: Metabolic Rift, World Ecology, and Urban Political Ecology

The concept of metabolism, as applied to the interrelations between human society and the rest of nature, has been one of the most fruitful iterations of socioecological thought over the last few decades. Here we will examine specific orientations of metabolic thought commonly employed in the social sciences, and their depiction of metabolism as it relates to the “society–nature” problematic and elaborate on the role of the dialectical method when analyzing socioecological processes and distinctions between society and the rest of nature. We will review two overarching uses of metabolism: the theory of metabolic rift and a hybridist metabolic approach to socio-nature. While the former regards society as an emergent property of nature, the latter regards distinctions between the two as undialectical and dualist. First, we review each of these approaches and how they differ in their application of the dialectical method. Then we explore some of the analytic implications of these differing approaches. We contend that a dialectical method that allows for, and encourages, analytical distinction is essential, and that the metabolic rift theory provides an important potential for advancing socioecological analysis in an era of anthropogenic environmental change through its use of analytical distinction between social and environmental phenomena.