Quality of soil, a historical-epistemological approach as a research program

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical and epistemological construction of the soil quality concept through the methodological framework of Imre Lakatos's scientific research programs. It addresses the theoretical ambiguity of this concept, which is historically entangled between productivist approaches and contemporary paradigms of ecological sustainability, leading to its fragmented definition within edaphology and pedology. Based on a critical and discursive reconstruction of the specialized literature, it is demonstrated that the postulates of productivity —in terms of soil functions— operate as the program's hard core, whereas physicochemical indicators, biological variables, and digital methodologies constitute a dynamic protective belt. The results evidence that the soil quality program possesses a robust positive heuristic, which has enabled it to assimilate empirical anomalies and integrate the critical demands of the global environmental crisis without neutralizing its epistemological foundations. It is concluded that the concept does not merely represent a technical tool, but rather a theoretically and heuristically progressive research program. Its enduring relevance lies in a remarkable capacity for interdisciplinary adaptation, consolidating itself as a binding conceptual axis for the formulation of governance policies and sustainability models.