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Succeeding from nature: The non‐human agency of Portuguese cork
The Geographical Journal ( IF 3.384 ) Pub Date : 2019-12-19 , DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12335
Andrew Brooks 1 , Robert A. Francis 1
Affiliation  

Non‐human life has economic agency. It acts on the cultural values of products. Naturalness is an important, yet ambiguous, property in the market and imbues vibrant materials with organic, healthy, traditional, and other contingent properties. However, “natural” products can be succeeded in form and function by “synthetic” alternatives. Their value is further affected by non‐humans. Our signal case explores Portuguese cork bark, an agroforestry product grown in the montado, a biodiverse managed mosaic landscape of forestry and farming. The natural value of cork bottle stoppers is associated with their effect on wine flavour. Oxygen‐permeable cork enables beneficial ageing to enhance flavour, whereas cork contaminated with taint degrades wine. Synthetic stoppers recreate the form and function of corks without being a vector for contamination. A succession from natural cork stoppers to reliable artificial polyethylene corks led to a decline in demand for cork bark and negative impacts on montado biodiversity. Yet here we demonstrate that such successions can be reversed as the affective properties of cork bark products became revalued with improvements in manufacturing, increasing concern for environmental sustainability, and rising consumer demand for natural products. This leads us to explore further the dynamics between natural goods and synthetic replacements. We argue that rather than being two discrete domains of reality, natural and artificial products are both co‐produced through assemblages of human and non‐human action. Understanding succession between “natural” and “artificial” products enables new insights into the geographies of non‐human agency.

中文翻译:

自然的成功:葡萄牙软木塞的非人类代理

非人类的生活具有经济动力。它作用于产品的文化价值。天然性是市场上重要但不明确的属性,并为充满活力的材料赋予了有机,健康,传统和其他或有的属性。但是,“天然”产品可以通过“合成”替代品在形式和功能上获得成功。它们的价值进一步受到非人类的影响。我们的信号案例探索了葡萄牙软木树皮,这是一种在蒙大拿州种植的农林业产品,这是由生物多样性管理的林业和农业马赛克景观。软木瓶塞的自然价值与其对葡萄酒风味的影响有关。透氧的软木塞可以进行有益的陈化以增强风味,而被异味污染的软木塞则会使葡萄酒降解。合成瓶塞可以重现软木塞的形状和功能,而不会成为污染的载体。从天然软木塞到可靠的人造聚乙烯软木塞的接连导致对软木树皮的需求下降,并对蒙多多州产生了负面影响生物多样性。然而,在这里我们证明,随着软木树皮产品的情感特性随着制造水平的提高,对环境可持续性的日益关注以及消费者对天然产品需求的增加而被重估,这种继承可以逆转。这使我们进一步探索了天然产品和合成替代品之间的关系。我们认为,天然和人工产品不是人类的两个离散领域,而是通过人类和非人类行为的组合来共同生产的。了解“天然”产品与“人工”产品之间的继承关系,可以对非人为代理的地区提供新的见解。
更新日期:2019-12-19
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