2025/11/17 by Chi‐Mao Wang, Damian Maye, Michael Woods · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Social Sciences · #Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development #Water Governance and Infrastructure #Geographies of human-animal interactions
paper · doi:10.1177/20438206251396234
openalex publication_date 2025/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/11/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This response engages Chen et al.'s (2026) intervention into our planetary rural geographies framework, which rethinks rural-urban relations through material and more-than-human agencies. We welcome their emphasis on infrastructure's role, particularly in China's rural construction movement. Extending this, we highlight how materials – chemicals, soils, atmospheric elements – shape uneven planetary transformations. Drawing from metabolic politics and critical agrarian studies, we trace how earthly substances entangle rural assemblages in toxicity, dispossession, and ecological crisis. While rural revitalisation proliferates globally, we caution against anthropocentric models that reproduce harm. Instead, we call for ethics of care rooted in human-nonhuman reciprocity, land stewardship, and intergenerational solidarity – advancing the planetary rural geographies agenda through attention to more-than-human entanglements and shared planetary responsibilities.