Sand 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.

中文翻译：

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沙地：解开建筑环境的物质基础

砂是构成建筑环境的物理主干的世界上使用最广泛的建筑材料，而砂的提取则引起严重的社会生态破坏和政治经济摩擦。本文通过追踪沙子及其从全球经济到其开采的当地社会生态效应的多重纠缠的地理位置，来满足更多科学关注的需求。首先，本文回顾了现有文献，并介绍了其开采的政治意义，经济用途，地球物理动力学和社会环境影响。其次，它提出了以资源地理为中心的沙子的社会材料地理学，要求与城市化及其时空效应的物质基础更加紧密地联系。全面的，