Leakage. Normative currents, intrinsic resistances and moments of disruption
This research application aims to finalize a long-term, intermittent work that commenced in 2012 where I have sought to combine the fields of gender studies and discard studies. The purpose is to formulate a first draft of a more comprehensive and theoretically oriented monograph, focusing on leakage. Leakage is of interest to scholars, both within gender studies and discard studies as it relates to concepts such as risk, embodiment and waste. While gender studies shows how leakage has come to stick to (female) bodies, leakage is employed within discard studies to explore different risks with practices of waste management, including landfilling and storage of nuclear waste. The project contributes to current tenets in that it sheds light on leakage in and through these various readings.
The work on the text will take place during the year of 2022. It includes a three-month stay abroad. Three themes comprise the book's overall structure: Leakage, waste and body (two months), Leakage, risk and waste management (three months) and Leakage, risk and body (five months). The work with these three themes is based on previous ethnographic fieldworks and the texts produced as a result of these fieldworks. Focus is mainly on revising and developing these texts. When it comes to the third theme, 5-10 interviews will be conducted with politicians and decision makers, as a complement to the material already collected. An additional two months will be spent, compiling the three themes.
The work on the text will take place during the year of 2022. It includes a three-month stay abroad. Three themes comprise the book's overall structure: Leakage, waste and body (two months), Leakage, risk and waste management (three months) and Leakage, risk and body (five months). The work with these three themes is based on previous ethnographic fieldworks and the texts produced as a result of these fieldworks. Focus is mainly on revising and developing these texts. When it comes to the third theme, 5-10 interviews will be conducted with politicians and decision makers, as a complement to the material already collected. An additional two months will be spent, compiling the three themes.
Final report
The most important results and publications:
Drawing on recent works within sociology, anthropology and human geography (for example, see Boelens and Dávila [eds.], 1988; Star, 1999; Swyngedouw, 2004; Kaika, 2005; Graham and Thrift, 2007; Black and Fawcett, 2008; Zimmer, 2011; Truelove, 2011; López Rivera, 2013; Larkin, 2013; Anand, 2017; Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 2021; Truelove and Ruszcyk, 2022), this research project introduces the concept of the sanitary water regime to explore the socio-material workings of sanitary infrastructures as well as the human efforts involved in sustaining these workings. Unlike the above-mentioned works however, where the infrastructures themselves commonly comprise the point of departure, I approach sanitary infrastructures through their mishaps and moments of disorder. Not only does this mean taking seriously disruptions such as breakdowns, leakages and stagnation; it also implies defamiliarizing the assumed naturalness that surround much of water’s ability to circulate. As the idea(l) of a uniform cyclic transformation (and transportation) of water requires continuous materialization and legitimization to appear as natural, the sanitary water regime emerges as a necessary, yet temporarily stabilization of a particular order, involving both material and discursive practices. Simply, if you want to explore a concept, look at its margins and borderlands, its slippages, jerky flows and involuntary discharges.
Sanitary infrastructures also offer a timely topic in relation to the current climate crisis and the subsequent discussions on water scarcity as well as pollution of water sources. This draws attention to water, and waste water management’s investedness in social and political frameworks. Distribution of drinking water and removal of waste water then, are not just technical and hygienic matters, but raise questions regarding disobedient waterbodies, ageing infrastructures and trends of centralization and commodification. Discussing the ways in which the sanitary water regime is established, enacted and fortified in and through human labor, attention is thus given to the socio-material compositions of the seemingly natural phenomenon of water’s circulation. As such, this book espouses to neo-materialistic currents where pipes, mains and valves, as well as maps and documentation both sustain and challenge human efforts to distribute and clean water and waste water. Included in this equation is also water itself, which, when serving human needs, requires huge infrastructural assemblages. Sanitary infrastructures are engineered to manage different water bodies, primarily drinking water, waste water and storm water, and while these water bodies remain under continuous control and surveillance, they do so for different reasons. Whereas drinking water is largely seen as a resource, waste water forms a potential risk. Storm water, which either enters the sewer systems from the outside, or is transported in separate pipes and mains, commonly emerges as something to be minimized.
As hinted above, the objective of this research project is to explore the continuous making and maintaining of the sanitary water regime. More precisely, it argues that the sanitary water regime emerges in and through, a) the idea(l) of water’s ability to circulate, and its subsequent othering of leakages and stagnation, b) the materiality of pipes, mains and valves, and c) organizational, and educational practices as well as documentation such as maps and written bases for decision. Attention is also given to sanitary infrastructures’ ability to straddle the structural and the individual/intimate. This is equally part of the sanitary water regime where (some) sharing of standards regarding the workings of sanitary infrastructures are required in order for it to function. Ultimately, this research project reflects upon the underground location of sanitary infrastructures. Continuous provision of drinking water and equally incessant removal of waste water are largely taken for granted in Sweden and Slovenia. The underground location of pipes, mains and valves, I suggest, contributes to sustaining these assumptions, at the same time as it also aggravates practices of repair, maintenance and exchange. The underground location of large parts of sanitary infrastructures might also sometimes obstruct requests for funding, simply due to the invisibility of these infrastructures. Here, the sanitary water regime is at the same time embodied and earthed, lived, institutionalized and politicized; it suffuses the individual in its most intimate sense, and stretches to concern thousands of miles of pipes and mains.
Activities, conferences and workshops:
Data collection:
21 interviews comprise the empirical foundation of this research project. In total, 9 Slovenian, and 12 Swedish municipal and national actors, engaged in water and waste water management, have been interviewed.
Data collection commenced in April, 2022 and during this year, I visited Slovenia at two occasions. During the spring of 2022, I spent one month in Slovenia, pursuing the initial interviews. I returned during the summer of 2022 to continue the interviews. The interviews in Slovenia were conducted at the same time as I also conducted interviews with Swedish municipal stakeholders. The collection of data lasted until the early autumn of 2022.
Conferences:
15th and 16th of September, 2022: Opening the Bin (Re-opening the circle), Milano and online. Title of presentation: Leakage and the circularity of water.
4th and 5th of November, 2022: The annual conference of SSA (Slovenian Sociological Association), Ljubljana and online. Title of presentation: The becoming of sanitary systems. For the program, see SSD-ZBORNIK-PRISPEVKOV-22-WEB-OK.pdf (sociolosko-drustvo.si) (accessed 2023-01-09).
8th and 9th of February, 2023: Svenskt Vatten’s national conference Avlopp & Miljö, Borås. Participant.
7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of June, 2023: The SIEF conference, Brno. Title of presentation: Unearthing, blackboxing. Management of sanitary infrastructures.
Workshops:
11th and 12th of April, 2022: Workshop, Forum for Gender Studies (FGV), Mittuniversitetet.
26th of January, 2023: Workshop at Mid Sweden University on food, agriculture, risk, resilience and water (Workshop om mat, odling, risk, resiliens och vatten | miun.se, 2023-06-24). This event was jointly organized by the Dept. of Sociology and the Dept. of Environmental Science, Mid Sweden University. We also invited Polona Pengal, a Slovenian marine biologist, working at the Slovenian NGO Revivo as a presenter.
The results have been disseminated and collaboration has taken place as follows:
Conferences:
15th and 16th of September, 2022: Opening the Bin (Re-opening the circle), Milano and online. This conference did not only offer the possibility to disseminate some of the tentative research results; through my participation, I encountered Linus Ekman Burgman, a PhD student from Linköping University who works with questions regarding sludge and sludge management in Sweden. This encounter resulted in an invitation to work as a third supervisor during the remaining time for his PhD project. Participating in the conference also resulted in an invitation to formulate a chapter in the forthcoming edited volume Waste as critique (editor Hevré Corvellec).
Some of the tentative results were also disseminated at the annual conference of SSA (Slovenian Sociological Association), which was held in Ljubljana, in December, 2022 as well as the SIEF conference, held in Brno in June, 2023.
Seminar:
17th of November, 2022: Higher seminar at the Dept. of Sociology, Mid Sweden University. Title of presentation: The sanitary water regime.
Workshop:
26th of January, 2023: Workshop at Mid Sweden University on food, agriculture, risk, resilience and water. Title of presentation: River management/NBS/Risk and resilience. (This presentation was a joint presentation together with Polona Pengal.)
Guest lecture:
30th of March: As a means to present the research results to undergraduate students, I was invited by Prof. Franc Mali at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, to have a guest lecture. The guest lecture took place digitally. The students attended the courses Social and ethical aspects of modern science and The new emerging technologis and transhumanism.
Drawing on recent works within sociology, anthropology and human geography (for example, see Boelens and Dávila [eds.], 1988; Star, 1999; Swyngedouw, 2004; Kaika, 2005; Graham and Thrift, 2007; Black and Fawcett, 2008; Zimmer, 2011; Truelove, 2011; López Rivera, 2013; Larkin, 2013; Anand, 2017; Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 2021; Truelove and Ruszcyk, 2022), this research project introduces the concept of the sanitary water regime to explore the socio-material workings of sanitary infrastructures as well as the human efforts involved in sustaining these workings. Unlike the above-mentioned works however, where the infrastructures themselves commonly comprise the point of departure, I approach sanitary infrastructures through their mishaps and moments of disorder. Not only does this mean taking seriously disruptions such as breakdowns, leakages and stagnation; it also implies defamiliarizing the assumed naturalness that surround much of water’s ability to circulate. As the idea(l) of a uniform cyclic transformation (and transportation) of water requires continuous materialization and legitimization to appear as natural, the sanitary water regime emerges as a necessary, yet temporarily stabilization of a particular order, involving both material and discursive practices. Simply, if you want to explore a concept, look at its margins and borderlands, its slippages, jerky flows and involuntary discharges.
Sanitary infrastructures also offer a timely topic in relation to the current climate crisis and the subsequent discussions on water scarcity as well as pollution of water sources. This draws attention to water, and waste water management’s investedness in social and political frameworks. Distribution of drinking water and removal of waste water then, are not just technical and hygienic matters, but raise questions regarding disobedient waterbodies, ageing infrastructures and trends of centralization and commodification. Discussing the ways in which the sanitary water regime is established, enacted and fortified in and through human labor, attention is thus given to the socio-material compositions of the seemingly natural phenomenon of water’s circulation. As such, this book espouses to neo-materialistic currents where pipes, mains and valves, as well as maps and documentation both sustain and challenge human efforts to distribute and clean water and waste water. Included in this equation is also water itself, which, when serving human needs, requires huge infrastructural assemblages. Sanitary infrastructures are engineered to manage different water bodies, primarily drinking water, waste water and storm water, and while these water bodies remain under continuous control and surveillance, they do so for different reasons. Whereas drinking water is largely seen as a resource, waste water forms a potential risk. Storm water, which either enters the sewer systems from the outside, or is transported in separate pipes and mains, commonly emerges as something to be minimized.
As hinted above, the objective of this research project is to explore the continuous making and maintaining of the sanitary water regime. More precisely, it argues that the sanitary water regime emerges in and through, a) the idea(l) of water’s ability to circulate, and its subsequent othering of leakages and stagnation, b) the materiality of pipes, mains and valves, and c) organizational, and educational practices as well as documentation such as maps and written bases for decision. Attention is also given to sanitary infrastructures’ ability to straddle the structural and the individual/intimate. This is equally part of the sanitary water regime where (some) sharing of standards regarding the workings of sanitary infrastructures are required in order for it to function. Ultimately, this research project reflects upon the underground location of sanitary infrastructures. Continuous provision of drinking water and equally incessant removal of waste water are largely taken for granted in Sweden and Slovenia. The underground location of pipes, mains and valves, I suggest, contributes to sustaining these assumptions, at the same time as it also aggravates practices of repair, maintenance and exchange. The underground location of large parts of sanitary infrastructures might also sometimes obstruct requests for funding, simply due to the invisibility of these infrastructures. Here, the sanitary water regime is at the same time embodied and earthed, lived, institutionalized and politicized; it suffuses the individual in its most intimate sense, and stretches to concern thousands of miles of pipes and mains.
Activities, conferences and workshops:
Data collection:
21 interviews comprise the empirical foundation of this research project. In total, 9 Slovenian, and 12 Swedish municipal and national actors, engaged in water and waste water management, have been interviewed.
Data collection commenced in April, 2022 and during this year, I visited Slovenia at two occasions. During the spring of 2022, I spent one month in Slovenia, pursuing the initial interviews. I returned during the summer of 2022 to continue the interviews. The interviews in Slovenia were conducted at the same time as I also conducted interviews with Swedish municipal stakeholders. The collection of data lasted until the early autumn of 2022.
Conferences:
15th and 16th of September, 2022: Opening the Bin (Re-opening the circle), Milano and online. Title of presentation: Leakage and the circularity of water.
4th and 5th of November, 2022: The annual conference of SSA (Slovenian Sociological Association), Ljubljana and online. Title of presentation: The becoming of sanitary systems. For the program, see SSD-ZBORNIK-PRISPEVKOV-22-WEB-OK.pdf (sociolosko-drustvo.si) (accessed 2023-01-09).
8th and 9th of February, 2023: Svenskt Vatten’s national conference Avlopp & Miljö, Borås. Participant.
7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of June, 2023: The SIEF conference, Brno. Title of presentation: Unearthing, blackboxing. Management of sanitary infrastructures.
Workshops:
11th and 12th of April, 2022: Workshop, Forum for Gender Studies (FGV), Mittuniversitetet.
26th of January, 2023: Workshop at Mid Sweden University on food, agriculture, risk, resilience and water (Workshop om mat, odling, risk, resiliens och vatten | miun.se, 2023-06-24). This event was jointly organized by the Dept. of Sociology and the Dept. of Environmental Science, Mid Sweden University. We also invited Polona Pengal, a Slovenian marine biologist, working at the Slovenian NGO Revivo as a presenter.
The results have been disseminated and collaboration has taken place as follows:
Conferences:
15th and 16th of September, 2022: Opening the Bin (Re-opening the circle), Milano and online. This conference did not only offer the possibility to disseminate some of the tentative research results; through my participation, I encountered Linus Ekman Burgman, a PhD student from Linköping University who works with questions regarding sludge and sludge management in Sweden. This encounter resulted in an invitation to work as a third supervisor during the remaining time for his PhD project. Participating in the conference also resulted in an invitation to formulate a chapter in the forthcoming edited volume Waste as critique (editor Hevré Corvellec).
Some of the tentative results were also disseminated at the annual conference of SSA (Slovenian Sociological Association), which was held in Ljubljana, in December, 2022 as well as the SIEF conference, held in Brno in June, 2023.
Seminar:
17th of November, 2022: Higher seminar at the Dept. of Sociology, Mid Sweden University. Title of presentation: The sanitary water regime.
Workshop:
26th of January, 2023: Workshop at Mid Sweden University on food, agriculture, risk, resilience and water. Title of presentation: River management/NBS/Risk and resilience. (This presentation was a joint presentation together with Polona Pengal.)
Guest lecture:
30th of March: As a means to present the research results to undergraduate students, I was invited by Prof. Franc Mali at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, to have a guest lecture. The guest lecture took place digitally. The students attended the courses Social and ethical aspects of modern science and The new emerging technologis and transhumanism.