How Objectified Capital Leaves Its Footprint in Protected Areas
What happens when we use Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological perspective to analyse the physical space of a transboundary biosphere reserve? In my recent publication in Frontiers in Environmental Economics, I examined how objectified forms of capital—roads, buildings, nocturnal light, and emissions—are spatially distributed in and around the Gerês-Xurés Biosphere Reserve, located on the border between northern Portugal and Galicia. This study, which combines satellite data analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, reveals a cartography of objectified inequalities.
We found six spatial clusters that reflect uneven patterns of connectivity, urbanisation, and pollution. Most of the reserve remains peripheral, but some zones—particularly those under tourism pressure—are rapidly increasing their anthropogenic footprint. This spatialised view of capital externalities challenges the assumption that natural conservation areas are insulated from broader socio-economic dynamics.
The article offers a novel methodological contribution: integrating Bourdieu’s concept of social space with spatial statistics, remote sensing, and open geospatial data analysis. It is also a call to rethink conservation policy through the lens of objectified inequalities.