Metabolic Relations and Capitalist Destiny of Geography

Abstract

The position of being the determinant of destiny which is attributed to the geography, implies that the limit of the social problems that people both as individuals and collective subjects can overcome is determined by the cultural conditions and the limits of the societies or nations in which they are born into. Accepting this phrase as it is also means accepting historical-cultural conditions as they are unchangeable transcendental laws that determine the features of lives of people. In this study, emphasizing the decisiveness of capitalist social relations and their historicity, thus their openness to change is aimed instead of the mentioned unchangeable transcendental laws. In order to achieve this, there will be made reference to the discussion of “metabolic relationship” which is coined by Marx in order to make sense of the concept of geography and also in order to determine the borders of the concept of destiny in related phrase, the meaning of destiny under the conditions of the capitalist mode of production will be discussed around the concept of “capitalist realism” coined by Mark Fisher. Finally, this study will claim that geography cannot be considered as destiny, however even if it can be considered as such, both the concepts of geography a destiny will have to be re-formulated with emphasizing historicity as their center.