Abstract
This
paper critically assesses the metabolic rift as a social, ecological,
and historical concept describing the disruption of natural cycles and
processes and ruptures in material human-nature relations under
capitalism. As a social concept, the metabolic rift presumes that
metabolism is understood in relation to the labour process. This
conception, however, privileges the organisation of labour to the
exclusion of the practice of labour, which we argue challenges its
utility for analysing contemporary socio-environmental crises. As an
ecological concept, the metabolic rift is based on outmoded
understandings of (agro) ecosystems and inadequately describes relations
and interactions between labour and ecological processes. Historically,
the metabolic rift is integral to debates about the definitions and
relations of capitalism, industrialism, and modernity as historical
concepts. At the same time, it gives rise to an epistemic rift, insofar
as the separation of the natural and social worlds comes to be expressed
in social thought and critical theory,
which have one-sidedly focused on the social. We argue that a
reunification of the social and the ecological, in historical practice
and in historical thought, is the key to repairing the metabolic rift,
both conceptually and practically. The food sovereignty movement in this
respect is exemplary.
