Things that matter A dialogue on interpretative and material semiotics in geography

This paper brings into dialogue two kinds of semiotics that often surface in debates on nature-society relations, and which appear at first sight incompatible and incomprehensible to each other: the first is an interpretative semiotics that focuses on how meaning is constructed (social constructivism), while the second is a materialist semiotics that focuses on how (material) things get constructed (post-dualism). In our text a social constructivist and a post-dualist perform a counter-factual debate in an ideal typical situation. Through this moderated argument we aim to make clear and discuss the implicit ontological, epistemological and normative premises of the two diverging positions in the ongoing negotiation of nature-society relations.