Loss of grounding

[alibey71]

‘Air matters too little in social theory... Yet aside from signifying a loss of grounding, air is as taken for granted in theory as it is in most of our daily breaths ... "

I couldn't figure the emphasized phrase out, can you help me? Thanks in advance.

The source: Vertical by Stephen Graham

 

[Starless74]

Just to understand the context better, how is air related to social theory at all?

 

[alibey71]

Just to understand the context better, how is air related to social theory at all?

"Despite the growing public discourses addressing air-quality emergencies in and around the world’s big cities, the political nature of the human manufacture of air in and around cities remains poorly explored. Academic debates on the subject tend still to de dominated by technical, medicalised and public health debates which fail to underline the essential environmental politics characterising urban heat and pollution crises. Political ecologist Raymond Bryant diag-nosed over fifteen years ago that ‘the existing literature [on changing air quality] is largely devoid of political analysis.’"

 

[Starless74]

Thank you for the clarification.
I guess: a loss of grounding = a loss of the basic notions (on air quality or whatever the writer attaches importance to in the context)

 

[alibey71]

Thank you for the clarification.
I guess: a loss of grounding = a loss of the basic notions (on air quality or whatever the writer attaches importance to in the context)

Thank you, Startless74.