Piskunova A.E. Issues of Space and Time in Social Studies of Natural Resources. Sociology of Science and Technology. 2024. Vol. 15. № 2. Pp. 178–198 (in Russian).

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://sst.nw.ru/Files/2024/2024_2-11.pdf (дата обращения 03.12.2024)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the trend towards revision the concept of a resource in the discourse of social sciences. The increased demand for natural resources and the significant expansion of extractive industries have drawn the attention of the scholars to various socio-economic and environmental consequences. It also raised complex issues of ontology and epistemology of resources. The critical and relational perspective developed in social resource research offers an understanding of resources not as “natural” and “finished”, but as socially, culturally, politically and economically constructed. The new research optics significantly problematized the issues of space and time. The article has shown that an impressive variety of spatial and temporal frames arise in the context of resource extraction and use. Due to spatial concepts and practices, specific resource extraction sites, distributed spatial infrastructures, clash and tension of scales are appeared. Various ways of experiencing, comprehending, and mobilizing time are actively involved in the political and economic structure, in interactions with the materiality of resources and technologies, as well as in the processes of their assessment. It is demonstrated that the spatialities and temporalities of resource projects are formed, transformed and recreated around unstable and variable relationships. Resources are presented as inherently distributed objects, the essence of which should not be sought either exclusively in their biophysical properties or in networks of social and cultural meanings. The classification of something as a resource is primarily related to the social understanding of utility and value. The most important condition for structuring the links between society and resources is scientific knowledge and technology. The article is devoted to the trend towards revision the concept of a resource in the discourse ofsocial sciences. The increased demand for natural resources and the significant expansion of extractiveindustries have drawn the attention of the scholars to various socio-economic and environmentalconsequences. It also raised complex issues of ontology and epistemology of resources. The criticaland relational perspective developed in social resource research offers an understanding of resourcesnot as “natural” and “finished”, but as socially, culturally, politically and economically constructed.The new research optics significantly problematized the issues of space and time. The article has shownthat an impressive variety of spatial and temporal frames arise in the context of resource extractionand use. Due to spatial concepts and practices, specific resource extraction sites, distributed spatialinfrastructures, clash and tension of scales are appeared. Various ways of experiencing, comprehending,and mobilizing time are actively involved in the political and economic structure, in interactions withthe materiality of resources and technologies, as well as in the processes of their assessment. It isdemonstrated that the spatialities and temporalities of resource projects are formed, transformed andrecreated around unstable and variable relationships. Resources are presented as inherently distributedobjects, the essence of which should not be sought either exclusively in their biophysical properties orin networks of social and cultural meanings. The classification of something as a resource is primarilyrelated to the social understanding of utility and value. The most important condition for structuringthe links between society and resources is scientific knowledge and technology.