自然的社会建构：西方人文地理学对自然的再认识

自然的社会建构作为西方人文地理学界对自然的再思考,渐成为理解自然与社会互动的重要理论框架,并逐步成为推动人地和谐、可持续发展研究的新范式。通过梳理自然的社会建构研究理论源起并对西方涉及自然的社会建构的研究文献进行全面梳理发现,自然的社会建构并非单纯指基于建构主义视角考察自然的知识生产或价值与意义,还应该关注自然被生产与形构的商品化过程。现有议题主要聚焦于政治与自然、商品化与自然、社会情感与自然以及日常生活与自然四大方面。在此基础上,进一步提出了国内未来研究需要关注的重要方向。

Social Construction of Nature: The Rethink of Western Human Geography on Nature

The approach of social construction of nature has become an important theoretical framework in understanding the interplay between society and nature in western Human Geography as geographers has long endeavored to integrate Human Geography and Physical Geography. “Social construction of nature” not only refers to the process and transformation by which nature is materially formed and commodified, but also emphasizes that the ideas of nature are socially constructed and culturally determined, which intrinsically related to subjective meanings, power, discourse, and representation. This approach therefore arguably sheds new light on cultivating harmonious human-place relationship and substantial development. This article seeks to review on the theory of social construction of nature and related literature, and outlines four aspect of focuses: the politics of nature, the commercialization of nature, social emotion and nature, and everyday life and nature. We argue that social construction of nature is not merely a social constructionist approach that primarily focuses on the knowledge production and social value and meaning imposed on the nature, but also intellectually rewarding in seeing both material and symbolic form of nature as interactively constituted with each other. Most importantly, the material changes of nature are often interactively tied up with the values and meanings of nature. At last, this article proposes the future research areas that requires further theoretical and empirical investigation including the dynamics and effects of social construction of nature amidst China social transformation, power relationships and negotiation underlying the socialize process of nature, capital’s impacts upon the reconstruction of nature, and individuals’ emotional response to social construction of nature. Hence, we argue that the positivist understanding of nature need to articulate with social constructionist approach, which reconcile the material change of nature with social meanings and relationships. This article seeks to enrich the interdisciplinary research of nature in domestic Human Geography and Physical Geography.