This project proposes planetary rural geographies to counter the narrative of planetary urbanisation, which has contended that the whole planet has been urbanised and can be understood through urban theory without an outside. Whilst critics have challenged the metrophilia inherent to planetary urbanisation, advanced post-colonial critiques, and posited alternative models of ruralisation, we argue that these responses fall short of fully embracing the radical potential of a planetary perspective. We call for planetary rural geographies that examine rural places as sites of interaction between diverse more-than-human relations that extend above and below the Earth surface and contend that the configuration of human–environment interactions at the ‘rural’ end of urban–rural relations is critical to addressing planetary crises. We elaborate this argument by focusing on three geographies of planetary rurality: as a space of crisis, as a space of conflict, and as a space of hope, evidenced by examples drawn from the global rural literature. (Download here)

本研究提出「行星鄉村地理學」（planetary rural geographies）作為對「行星都市化」（planetary urbanisation）論述的回應與挑戰。行星都市化主張整個地球均已被都市化佔據，並可全然透過都市理論進行理解，排除了所謂「外部」的存在。雖然已有批判觀點指出該理論內含的都市中心主義傾向（metrophilia），發展出後殖民批評路徑，並嘗試以「鄉村化」模型進行替代，我們認為，這些回應仍未充分揭示並實踐行星視角所蘊藏的批判與轉化潛能。因此，我們主張有必要發展「行星鄉村地理學」這一概念性框架，以鄉村空間為分析起點，探討其作為各種非人類（more-than-human）關係交織的場域，如何跨越地表與地層上下，構成對地球系統政治的新理解。我們進一步指出，在都市—鄉村關係的光譜中，「鄉村端」所構成的人—環境互動關係，對於回應當前所面臨的行星性危機具有關鍵意義。本研究透過三個面向展開對行星鄉村性的討論：其一，作為危機空間；其二，作為衝突空間；其三，作為希望空間。我們援引全球鄉村地理文獻中的實證案例，以具體呈現上述三種行星鄉村性的多重形態與政治潛力。

In recent years, my research has focused on the impact of plant and animal diseases on export-oriented markets. I have concentrated on Taiwan’s pig farming industry, exploring how the implementation of biosecurity practices reshaped the structure of the sector following the 1997 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. While small-scale producers began exiting the industry, the persistence of social and material infrastructures has continued to expose Taiwan’s pig farming sector to various disease threats. Findings from this research have been published in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers and the Journal of Cultural Economy. The research has also been featured in an interview with The Animal Turn podcast. [Listen here.]

In addition to my work on livestock, my interest in biosecurity has also extended to plant diseases—particularly those for which no definitive solutions currently exist. I am interested in how such plant diseases reshape market organizations and influence farmers’ everyday field practices. Through this research, I have found that contemporary understandings of soil health constitute a heterogeneous assemblage that cannot be reduced to simplified metrics such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Instead, soil must be understood through long-term practices of speculative care. Findings from this line of inquiry have been published in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.

近年來，我的研究聚焦於植物與動物疾病對外銷導向市場的影響。我特別關注台灣的養豬產業，探討自1997年口蹄疫爆發以來，生物安全（biosecurity）實踐如何重塑產業結構。儘管小規模生產者逐漸退出產業，但既有的社會與物質基礎設施仍使得台灣養豬業持續面臨各類疫病的威脅。相關研究成果已發表於《英國皇家地理學會會刊》（Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers）與《文化經濟期刊》（Journal of Cultural Economy），也於 The Animal Turn podcast 節目中討論研究成果。

除了對畜牧業的研究之外，我對生物安全的關注也延伸至植物疾病，特別是那些至今仍無明確解方的病害。我關心這些植物疾病如何重塑市場的組織形式，並影響農民在日常耕作中的田間實踐。透過相關研究，我發現當代對土壤健康的理解，其實是一種異質性的組合（assemblage），難以僅以氮、磷、鉀等簡化指標加以衡量。相反地，土壤應被視為需透過長時間的「推測式照護」（speculative care）來維繫與理解的對象。這方面的研究成果已發表於 Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space。

One of my recent research interests centers on the geopolitics of the Anthropocene, building on emerging scholarship in political geography on volumetric politics. I explore how more-than-human entities—such as groundwater, marine sand, and the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin—destabilize conventional understandings of Earth system governance. This line of inquiry extends contemporary debates on the concept of territory, drawing inspiration from Stuart Elden’s argument that territory is historically and technically produced. My work investigates how scientific and technological interventions are increasingly deployed to manage subterranean and subaquatic volumes, revealing new forms of spatial governance in three dimensions. Findings from this research have been published in Political Geography (Download) and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

我近期的另外一個研究興趣聚焦於人類世下的地緣政治(Geo-politics)，並延伸當代政治地理學中有關「量體政治」（volumetric politics）的理論發展。這裡的Geo並非過去政治學所討論的國家與國家間的地緣政治，而是泛指圍繞著地球系統的各種環境政治。例如我的研究關注地下水、海砂以及白海豚等非人類（more-than-human）行動者，如何挑戰人們傳統對環境政治的理解。例如，砂的流動性、固液態的相變、跨越國境和陸海域邊界等，讓以單一國家為主的環境治理變的無比困難。同樣的，我們也看到地下水系統的複雜性，讓科學的監測方式，經常無法正確掌握水下變化。此一系統的地球政治的研究，進一步拓展了當代對於「領域」（territory）概念的理解，並借鏡 Stuart Elden 的主張，指出領域是歷史性與技術性共同建構的產物，而非是一個固定不變的概念，簡單而來，隨著各種科學技術的進展(如無人機的出現等)，人們對於劃界、定界等的方式也隨之而變。