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Progress in Human Geography
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Material worlds? Resource geographies and the `matter of nature'

Karen Bakker

Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Room 217, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2, Canada, bakker{at}geog.ubc.ca

Gavin Bridge

Geography, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Concepts of `materiality' are increasingly invoked in human geography. This paper discusses several recent and influential workings of materiality, and examines their implications for resource geographies. First, we identify a set of analytical questions at the heart of resource geography and characterize the dominant approaches to these questions - the `production of nature' and the `social construction of nature' - as yielding diminishing returns. Second, we survey recent work on materiality relating to commodities, corporeality and hybridity and advance the claim that this work provides a number of fresh perspectives with which to revive resource geography. Third, we highlight three specific themes within this research: a radical redistribution and decentering of agency; a revitalization of the concept of `construction'; and an acknowledgement of the political-economic implications that flow from a world that is biophysically heterogeneous. Finally, we draw on this analysis to explore how progress might be made in the conceptualization and empirical study of resources.

Key Words: agency • embodiment • environment • hybrid • materiality • nature • resource geography • resources • textuality

Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 30, No. 1, 5-27 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/0309132506ph588oa
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