Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Geoforum. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 127, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.04.006
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Vertical Fire
T2 - For a Pyropolitics of the Subsurface
AU - Clark, Nigel
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Geoforum. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 127, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.04.006
PY - 2021/12/31
Y1 - 2021/12/31
N2 - The geopolitical - or more specifically pyropolitical - crisis triggered by combusting fossilized hydrocarbons can be viewed in the context of a much longer human history of utilising fire as a means of traversing and utilizing the Earth's subsurface. The paper develops a conceptual framework to show how the developing fire-subsurface nexus advances through a succession of different human enfoldings or ‘involutions' of fire that serve to intensify its force. This is explored at three critical junctures: the earliest hominin uses of fire in the geologically active landscape of the Great Rift Valley, the chambering of fire by ancient artisans and the material and political significance of its products in emergent city-states, and the role of explosive weapons in gunpowder empires. Finally, the paper circles back on the question of how revisiting the longue durée of human fire-subsurface entanglements might help us conceive of alternative pyropolitical realities.
AB - The geopolitical - or more specifically pyropolitical - crisis triggered by combusting fossilized hydrocarbons can be viewed in the context of a much longer human history of utilising fire as a means of traversing and utilizing the Earth's subsurface. The paper develops a conceptual framework to show how the developing fire-subsurface nexus advances through a succession of different human enfoldings or ‘involutions' of fire that serve to intensify its force. This is explored at three critical junctures: the earliest hominin uses of fire in the geologically active landscape of the Great Rift Valley, the chambering of fire by ancient artisans and the material and political significance of its products in emergent city-states, and the role of explosive weapons in gunpowder empires. Finally, the paper circles back on the question of how revisiting the longue durée of human fire-subsurface entanglements might help us conceive of alternative pyropolitical realities.
KW - fire
KW - gunpowder
KW - Human evolution
KW - climate change
KW - subsurface
KW - extraction
U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.04.006
DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.04.006
M3 - Journal article
VL - 127
SP - 364
EP - 372
JO - Geoforum
JF - Geoforum
SN - 0016-7185
ER -