Socioplastics 11990 Soil Is Not a Neutral Support for Measurement
Ecological indicators promise comparisons across sites, while sampling also establishes relations of access, extraction and authority. PedologicVitality frames soil as a living and situated field whose measurement depends on protocols, permissions and responsibilities. A sample can establish particular chemical conditions; its evidentiary value does not settle who may collect it, which histories shape the site or what remediation means for continued occupation. The marker holds the scientific account of soil conditions alongside the social relations through which those conditions become evidence. Eugene Odum’s ecosystem ecology provides a vocabulary for material flows and relations among living systems. Max Liboiron’s work on pollution and colonial science asks whose land, consent and obligations a sampling protocol presupposes. Their intellectual approaches emerge from different contexts. Read together, they sharpen a tension between functional description and situated responsibility. Ecological knowledge can describe important conditions, while the production of that knowledge also involves decisions about access, handling, interpretation and the authority to make claims about a place. Imagine a municipal survey that takes soil samples to certify a redevelopment area. Laboratory analysis could establish the presence or concentration of particular substances. A fuller record would also identify the sampling locations, permissions, chain of custody, local knowledge consulted and intended use of results. Residents might raise concerns about historical dumping, gardens, burial grounds or ongoing occupation that require additional forms of inquiry. The research would preserve what the measurements demonstrate and specify which questions remain outside their scope. PedologicVitality asks researchers to connect environmental measurement with the conditions of its production and use. It does not diminish the importance of sampling; it prevents a technical result from automatically becoming territorial permission or a complete account of remediation. A responsible dossier could place laboratory findings beside land histories, consent records, community accounts and proposed decisions. This relation allows ecological evidence to inform action while remaining answerable to the people and places involved. Soil appears here as both a material system and a site of obligation.
REFERENCES
Liboiron, M. (2021) Pollution Is Colonialism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Odum, E.P. (1953) Fundamentals of Ecology. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.
CITE AS
Lloveras, A. (2026) Socioplastics, LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid.
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