Negotiating the spatial politics of waste
Contesting the binary of waste and value: negotiating and sustaining claims over coastal space under the promise of development
Lead Supervisor: Niranjana Ramesh
Degree Programme: PhD in Geography, in the Department of Geography & Environmental Science
Project Description
In coastal south India, as with many other global south coastlines, a rich and vibrant socio-ecological life exists alongside toxic chemical pollution and ongoing industrialisation. Fishers, foragers and other practitioners of environmentally contingent livelihoods inhabit the fluid geographies of sand, marsh, freshwater, brackish and seawater as do a biodiverse range of more-than-human neighbours. But, this habitat is contaminated by industrial effluent, municipal sewage, agricultural and aquaculture run-off, military and medical residue, concentrated saline water from desalination plants, hot water and even ammonia gas from various cooling units.
Living with waste is very ‘present’ in this geography. In order to imagine its future, this project proposes a lateral shift in perspective. It seeks to understand what else is considered ‘waste’ here in order for such blatant disregard for life and environment to continue bearing the ‘promise of development’. Even as activists and local communities contest the slow violence of pollution here through the lens of negligence, non-compliance, corruption and environmental injustice, it seeks to raise the question of what is valued and what’s considered disposable in this regime of coastal and marine development.
While this may be informed by the imperatives of global capital broadly, the contours of social and material life in situ are constantly reshaped by the experienced effects of living with waste. That is, waste contamination is rarely the end of socio-environmental activity, but rather an enduring condition around which human and more-than-human inhabitants adapt their practices, including how particular spaces are valued, used and claimed, and what kinds of futures are imagined for them. Thus, notions of value, disposability and waste are also negotiated in everyday practice, changing relationships between people, their environments and nodes of power like capital & state.
We invite project proposals that envision a future of living with waste as such a negotiated condition rather than only as material disturbance, prioritising coastal and littoral environments in the global south. The lead supervisor has strong research interests in south India and will propose partners – both institutions and community organisations - in this region. However, students are welcome to propose alternative sites and partners for their proposed study.
What we're looking for in a student
Applications are invited from candidates of any disciplinary background, but with a demonstrably strong interest in spatial research. Applicants who have some experience of research or other meaningful engagement – like journalism, activism, community organising and pedagogy, government/NGO work, research consultancy - in the sites and geographies they wish to study will be prioritised. Candidates may propose projects that are entirely based in human geography, or with interdisciplinary components including physical geography, politics and the arts. Suitable co-supervision arrangements will then be sought among colleagues in these disciplines. If candidates wish to undergo disciplinary or interdisciplinary training – for eg., in data visualisation, community mapping, creative practice – this may be arranged within or outside QMUL, or along with partners and communities in the research site, depending on availability.
Key words: Fishers, livelihoods, coastal development, spatial claims, pollution