City of Sand: Urban Ecologies and Uncertain Life in Chennai (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant)
Part of the Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant Application Collection Metadata (DRAFT) project
Author(s): Edward Dostaler
Year: 2021
Summary
This resource is an application for the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
In Chennai, and elsewhere, sand is a constitutive element of modern urban life. Through its many material arrangements and circulations, sand mediates lifeworlds and landscapes. For example, in Chennai, sand mined or dredged from riverbanks, beaches, and the Bay of Bengal flows into the city, where it supplies the "raw" material required for urbanization. Much of this sand becomes concrete, which forms the material infrastructure of the city, mediated by the bodies of laborers as well as complex legal, political, and economic systems. Aggregate forms of sand -beaches and coastline- are among the only public spaces in the city, and thus serve as a primary site for political action and struggle over the commons. Far from static physical forms, the sandy beaches and coastline in Chennai are dynamic, shifting, anthropogenic formations that fashion, and are fashioned by, technocratic practices of earth management and geo-engineering. In thinking with these various arrangements and circulations of sand in Chennai, this project asks: (1) How does sand mediate the interrelations between and constitution of: (a) Anthropos (Human Life) and Geos (Nonlife), and (b) existential, ecological, and economic uncertainty; and (2) How might tracing sand across Chennai inform more-than-human theories of mediation and relationality?
Cite this Record
City of Sand: Urban Ecologies and Uncertain Life in Chennai (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant). Edward Dostaler. 2021 ( tDAR id: 468664) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8468664
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
and economic uncertainty
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Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
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Ecological
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existential
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more-than-human materiality and mediation
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Socio-Cultural
Geographic Keywords
Chennai
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INDIA
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Southeast Asia
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Tamil Nadu
Spatial Coverage
min long: 77.687; min lat: 10.453 ; max long: 79.005; max lat: 11.445 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Wenner-Gren Foundation
Notes
Rights & Attribution: This resource is an application from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and has been approved by the grantee solely for pedagogical purposes. Please do not cite, circulate, or duplicate any part of these documents without the express written consent of the author.
File Information
| Name | Size | Creation Date | Date Uploaded | Access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ned_Dostaler_DF-Approved-Application-Budget-Bibliography.pdf | 630.60kb | Apr 14, 2022 10:59:41 AM | Public |