Project Details
Projekt
Indian Ocean Sand Worlds: The Role of Sand in Protecting Coastal Cities [SANDWORLDS]
Applicant
Dr. Lukas Ley
Subject Area
Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
Human Geography
Human Geography
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495006651
As central component in seabed systems, port facilities, and land ‘reclaimed’ from the sea, sand is a constitutive ingredient of urban infrastructure. It provides the basis for and gives form to inhabited shores by materializing territory and relations with the sea. The importance of sand for fortifying urban shorelines is growing – the construction industry and developers require sand to build ‘resilient’ cities, while communities need it to protect settlements and livelihoods against rising tides. Despite this trend, little is known about the urban metabolisms, social practices, and political formulations that rely on sand, not just in the Indian Ocean but in the Mediterranean or Pacific, as well. This study attempts to fill this gap by showing how sand relates to social organization and governance. In thinking with the contemporary economic and ecological conditions of Indian Ocean port cities and the material faculties of sand, it asks how sand organizes and even governs coastal protection in the Indian Ocean. To achieve its goals, SANDWORLDS will conduct ethnographic research on practices of coastal protection in four port cities: Mombasa, Chennai, Penang, Denpasar. The project defines coastal protection as infrastructural investments aimed at preserving life and social reproduction in intertidal zones. This work is carried out by coastal residents themselves, but also by hired workers or conservationist actors. The PI and three PhD students will primarily use qualitative research methods but also spatial analysis to reveal contemporary human entanglements with sand in the context of this work and the social effects of building lifeworlds with sand. Documenting projects of coastal protection will reveal the unseen operations of sand in making and unmaking coastal lifeworlds while showing how they are tied into larger structures of resource extraction and urban governance. Comparing material interventions related to sand across port cities, SANDWORLDS aims at revealing and rethinking forms of environmental governance in the face of rising seas. Its working hypothesis is that sand shapes the protection and building of coastal futures by operating at the interface of material processes, infrastructural change, and the politics of urban expansion. In addition to scientific publications, SANDWORLDS will produce an engaging website on which it regularly releases research insights and proceedings from international workshops. The project will further generate an online exhibit assembling work from local artists and other research artefacts. The exhibit aims to give voice to coastal dwellers and make scientific theories of coastal materiality more relatable. Lastly, the project prepares PhD students for an academic career.
DFG Programme
Independent Junior Research Groups
International Connection
Canada, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, USA
