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Presence, Absence, Transience: The Spatiotemporalities of Sand

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  • Jasper Knight

    (School of Geography, Archaeology & Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa)

Abstract

Sand grains are ubiquitous in the Earth’s system, and are found in different environmental settings globally, but sand itself as a physical object has multiple conflicting meanings with respect to both its agglomeration into landforms such as sand dunes and beaches, and how sand and its dynamics have cultural significance and meaning. This study takes a transdisciplinary approach towards examining the multiple meanings of sand, focusing on sand as a spatiotemporal pheneomenon that exists in different contexts within the Earth system. The nature and spatiotemporalities of sand are framed in this study through the concepts of presence, absence and transience, which are key interpretive approaches that lie at the interface of how the physical and phenomenological worlds interact with each other. This is a new and innovative approach to understanding people–environment relationships. These concepts are then discussed using the examples of the dynamics of and values ascribed to desert dune and sandy beach landscapes, drawn from locations globally. These examples show that the dynamic geomorphic changes taking place in sand landscapes (sandscapes) by erosion and deposition (determining the presence and absence of sand in such landscapes) pose challenges for the ways in which people make sense of, locate, interact with and value these landscapes. This uncertainty that arises from constant change (the transience of sandscapes) highlights the multiple meanings that sandscapes can hold, and this represents the comforting yet also unsettling nature of sand, as a vivid symbol of human–Earth relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Jasper Knight, 2022. "Presence, Absence, Transience: The Spatiotemporalities of Sand," Geographies, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-12, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgeogr:v:2:y:2022:i:4:p:40-668:d:951693
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vanessa Lamb & Melissa Marschke & Jonathan Rigg, 2019. "Trading Sand, Undermining Lives: Omitted Livelihoods in the Global Trade in Sand," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(5), pages 1511-1528, September.
    2. Zeynep K. Hansen & Gary D. Libecap, 2004. "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(3), pages 665-694, June.
    3. Thomas Beery & K. Ingemar Jönsson & Johan Elmberg, 2015. "From Environmental Connectedness to Sustainable Futures: Topophilia and Human Affiliation with Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-18, July.
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