Sand geographies: Disentangling the material foundations of the built environment

Abstract

AbstractSand is the world's most used construction material forming the physical backbone of the built environment, while its extraction is causing severe socioecological damages and political–economic frictions. This paper answers the need for more scientific attention, by tracing sand and the geographies of its multiple entanglements from the global economy to the local socioecological effects of its exploitation. First, the article reviews existing literature, providing an introduction into sand's political relevance, economic use, geophysical dynamics and socioenvironmental effects of its extraction. Second, it proposes a sociomaterial geography of sand centred around resource geographies, calling for a stronger engagement with the material foundations of urbanisation and its spatiotemporal effects. Overall, the article calls for more sociomaterial analyses of sand in order to challenge its normalisation as a universal, readily available, cheap and conflict‐free construction material.