Managing Toxins and Making Water 'Safe': Consumer Buffering Practices in Contexts of Chemo-Uncertainty
| dc.contributor.author | Drew, G. | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description | Published online: 23 Aug 2023. | |
| dc.description.abstract | When it comes to water quality, seeing is not believing; even clear-looking water can harbour nefarious elements that are harmful to health. To protect against water’s hidden toxins, Indian consumers are adopting technologies designed to filter and mechanically ‘heal’ the waters they consume. This paper ethnographically examines the use(s) of household water management technologies based on ten weeks of ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Kochi, Kerala. It contemplates the socioeconomic and anthropological significance of measures to filter and alkalinise tap water and to transform ‘dead’ municipal waters into healing waters with the power to ‘cure cancer’. Technological and infrastructural innovation is a means to an end in these safeguarding efforts; it enables what I argue are ‘buffering practices’ that allow a potentially dangerous element to feel restorative and wholesome once more. These insights add to scholarship exploring the rise of middle-class solutions for water safety in contemporary urban India. | |
| dc.description.statementofresponsibility | Georgina Drew | |
| dc.identifier.citation | The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2023; 24(5):323-345 | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1080/14442213.2023.2243904 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1444-2213 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1740-9314 | |
| dc.identifier.orcid | Drew, G. [0000-0002-5087-7551] | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/2440/139377 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Taylor and Francis | |
| dc.relation.grant | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE160101178 | |
| dc.rights | © 2023 The Australian National University | |
| dc.source.uri | https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2023.2243904 | |
| dc.subject | Water Safety; Toxins; Consumer Technologies; Buffering Practices; MiddleClass Consumption; Kochi (Kerala); Urban India | |
| dc.title | Managing Toxins and Making Water 'Safe': Consumer Buffering Practices in Contexts of Chemo-Uncertainty | |
| dc.type | Journal article | |
| pubs.publication-status | Published |