What does soil have to say? Experimental methods for a relational political ecology of soil

Soils are often described and conceptualised as a resource to be managed or  as ‘mines from which calories can be extracted’ (Arora & Stirling, 2023). But beneath our feet lies a lively, more-than-human world of organisms, labours, and relations. This seminar begins with a simple question: what does the soil have to say? Drawing on my ongoing PhD research with farmers and agricultural stakeholders in the UK, I explore how listening to the soil—both metaphorically and literally—can open ways of knowing soil and its entanglements with human lives and agricultural systems.
Through a relational political ecology lens, I consider how power, care, and constraint shape human–soil relations and I examine how economic pressures, agricultural policies, and everyday practices shape the ways farmers understand and care for soil. Alongside interviews and participant observation, I experiment with arts-based and sensory methods—from walking interviews to soil bioacoustics—to explore how farmers and researchers alike make sense of soil’s unseen activity. Throughout the seminar, we will also collectively listen to real recordings from the soil, offering a sensory dimension to the topic.