Beyond dualism – the social construction of nature and the natural and social construction of human beings

Abstract

The dualism between society and nature and the processes by which nature is being socially constructed has become an area of increasing concern and interest to geographers in recent years. In this article, the abstract and concrete inter-relationships between nature and society will be problematized, drawing on the work of Lackoff, Wittgenstein, Harré, Bourdieu and Lefebvre, among others. A number of concepts that will enable us to work across the boundaries conceived to exist between the physical, the mental and the social and thus of great importance for the analysis of the social construction of nature will be proposed.