Soil extractivism: Political ontology of soil erasure in the European Union's agricultural politics
Open accessAbstract
This article examines how specific (non-relational) political ontological understandings of soils are incorporated into industrial agricultural politics in the European Union and introduces a complementary contribution to existing literature with the concept of soil extractivism. The concept is used to describe current institutionalized ways of relating to soils and their dynamics of power. Through an integrative literature review, the article links existing research on soils with the development of modern agriculture in Europe. The theoretical contribution of soil extractivism provides a conceptual tool for understanding currently dominant ways of treating soils as a key part of modernity and industrial capitalism as well as part of wider destructions of multispecies relations.
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Researching extractivism extends to the subsoils, the deep sea and outer space, as well as to solar extractivism, wind extractivism, recycling lower-carbon technologies, hydrological extractivism, green hydrogen, the renewable energy-extraction nexus of battery storage technologies, green data extractivism complexes, and atmospheric geoengineering.
“Researching extractivism extends to the subsoils (Hokkanen, 2024), the deep sea (Childs, 2022) and outer space (Klinger, 2017), as well as to “solar extractivism” (Hu, 2023) “wind extractivism” (Dunlap & Marin, 2022, 7), recycling lower-carbon technologies (Sovacool et al., 2020), and hydrological extractivism”
From The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction (2024) · cites this paper as Hokkanen, 2024
Extractive or green extractive hegemony entails an 'extractive gaze' that is used to legitimize extraction by rendering certain beings, existences and lives of habitats invisible, meanwhile teaching people to think and see like an extractivist state or corporation.
“Extractive, or green extractive, hegemony thus entails an”
From The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction (2024) · cites this paper as Hokkanen, 2024
Agricultural plantations and soil extractivism exemplify concerns about degradation, but so does hydrological, solar and wind extractivism, the impacts of which are often difficult to observe, happen slowly and progressively over time.
“As mentioned above, agricultural plantations and soil extractivism exemplify these concerns (Kröger, 2022; Hokkanen, 2024), but so does hydrological, solar and wind extractivism (Kelly, 2021; Hu, 2023; Dunlap & Marin, 2022), the impacts of which are often difficult to observe, happen slowly and progressively over time.”
From The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction (2024) · cites this paper as Hokkanen, 2024
Cites
Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples
Torraco, R. J. (2005) · Human Resource Development Review · doi:10.1177/1534484305278283 · Cited by 3,534 · see citing works
Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change
Bernstein, H. (2010) · doi:10.1515/9781565494077 · Cited by 1,130 · see citing works
Liboiron, M. (2021) · doi:10.1515/9781478021445 · Cited by 716 · see citing works
Cáceres, D. M. (2015) · Journal of Agrarian Change · doi:10.1111/joac.12057 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
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The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction
Dunlap, A., Verweijen, J., & Tornel, C. (2024) · Journal of Political Ecology · doi:10.2458/jpe.6131 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
“Politics, in the modernist sense, preemptively eliminates certain socio/ontological concerns from political discussions, often from Indigenous, farmers, environmentalists and autonomists that view their habitats as living and sacred (Blaser, 2013; Cruz et al. , 2020; Kröger, 2022; Hokkanen, 2024).”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Hokkanen, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Hokkanen, Saana
- ORCID
- Hokkanen, Saana
- Venue
- Journal of Rural Studies
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-05
- Volume
- 108
- Pages
- 103298
- ISSN
- 0743-0167 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4398974694
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 7.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Rural Studies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission
- University of Helsinki
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Geographies of human-animal interactions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Extractivism and Socioeconomic Issues
- Keywords
- political ontology, EU agricultural policy, industrial agriculture, modern agriculture, multispecies relations, power relations, industrial capitalism
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