Reflexiones teórico-conceptuales sobre el binario Agencia-Estructura desde la Geografía Ambiental
Fecha
2021-06
Tipo
artículo original
Autores
Espinoza Cisneros, Edgar
Álvarez Vargas, Lisbeth Elena
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Resumen
El debate sobre la primacía que tienen la agencia y estructura en determinar las acciones humanas y la conformación de las sociedades ha prevalecido durante siglos en las ciencias sociales en general y en la geografía en particular. La rama de la geografía ambiental tiene también una historia destacable – aunque más reciente – de reflexiones en torno al rol que juegan las fuerzas sociales a escalas amplias, o la capacidad de autodeterminación del individuo, en condicionar las relaciones sociedad-naturaleza. Si bien durante muchos años se manejaron ambas posturas de manera aislada en esferas académicas, recientemente han surgido perspectivas integradoras de agencia y estructura que prometen robustecer las bases teórico- conceptuales que, a su vez, permitan un mejor entendimiento de las dinámicas socioambientales. En este artículo, primero repasamos algunas de estas perspectivas de agencia y estructura de manera aislada, desde la óptica de la geografía ambiental, particularmente las geografías del agua y del riesgo. Luego, introducimos algunos aportes empíricos y teórico-conceptuales que orientan hacia una mayor articulación de estas dos posturas. El propósito de este repaso es avanzar discusiones sobre cómo mejorar conceptualizaciones y teorizaciones sobre las complejas relaciones entre sociedad y naturaleza, en un contexto de apremiantes retos socioecológicos que enfrentamos como sociedad global.
Debates over the primacy of agency and structure in determining human actions and the constitution of societies has, for centuries, pervaded the social sciences in general and geography in particular. The human-environment geography branch has also had an important –yet more recent– history of debates about the role that broader social forces and/or individual self-determination play in conditioning nature-society relations. While both stances were treated disjointly within academic spheres for a long time, recently there have been more integrative perspectives of agency and structure that promise to strengthen the theoretical and conceptual foundations that, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of nature-society dynamics. In this article, we first review separately some of these perspectives on agency and structure from within the human-environment geography viewpoint, particularly water and risk-hazards geography. We then introduce some empirical and theoretical-conceptual contributions that lead towards a better articulation of these two stances. The purpose of this review is to advance discussions on how to improve conceptualizations and theorizations on the complex relations between society and nature within a context of pressing social-ecological challenges that we face as a global society.
Debates over the primacy of agency and structure in determining human actions and the constitution of societies has, for centuries, pervaded the social sciences in general and geography in particular. The human-environment geography branch has also had an important –yet more recent– history of debates about the role that broader social forces and/or individual self-determination play in conditioning nature-society relations. While both stances were treated disjointly within academic spheres for a long time, recently there have been more integrative perspectives of agency and structure that promise to strengthen the theoretical and conceptual foundations that, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of nature-society dynamics. In this article, we first review separately some of these perspectives on agency and structure from within the human-environment geography viewpoint, particularly water and risk-hazards geography. We then introduce some empirical and theoretical-conceptual contributions that lead towards a better articulation of these two stances. The purpose of this review is to advance discussions on how to improve conceptualizations and theorizations on the complex relations between society and nature within a context of pressing social-ecological challenges that we face as a global society.
Descripción
Palabras clave
Teoría social, Ecología política, Geografías del agua, Geografías del riesgo, Interacciones sociedad-naturaleza, Geografía humana, Social theory, Political ecology, Hazards geography, Nature-society interactions, Water geographies, Human geography