Quantifying quality: practices of drinking water quality knowledge-making in Kaolack, Senegal

MacAfee, Elizabeth

doi:10.1080/13549839.2022.2136643

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…For instance, a single source of water can have multiple uses and focusing exclusively on drinking water as an intended use can conversely have negative impacts on public health. For instance, MacAfee (2021) observed public health actors in Kaolack, Senegal blocking consumers from using a well because bacteriological contamination was detected. This stopped all use of water from that well, even though not all of the well’s water would have been used for drinking and the water could have still been used for hygienic or agricultural purposes (MacAfee, 2021).…”

Section: Assemblage Theory and Immanent Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, MacAfee (2021) observed public health actors in Kaolack, Senegal blocking consumers from using a well because bacteriological contamination was detected. This stopped all use of water from that well, even though not all of the well’s water would have been used for drinking and the water could have still been used for hygienic or agricultural purposes (MacAfee, 2021). As a result, the people who relied on that water experienced an increased burden of finding water for other domestic uses (such burdens often fall on women).…”

Section: Assemblage Theory and Immanent Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Critically assembling water quality ethics beyond thresholds, hierarchies and best practices

MacAfee

2022

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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The emerging field of water ethics analyses and explores the moral implications of particular human–water relations and practices. This article focuses on ethical aspects of planning, management and governance of water quality, in what I refer to as water quality ethics. In particular, I draw attention to the potential for incorporating the ethical perspectives of philosophers Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari into water quality planning, management and governance, opening for exchange between these normative fields of policy and practice with speculative philosophy. Deleuze and Guattari’s ethics emphasises the rejection of externally imposed binaries and categories onto a deeply heterogenous and dynamic world. Therefore, I identify three potentially problematic moments in how water quality is defined and responded to according to these criteria. I provide examples of how abstract and universalising principles can obscure the complexity of individual situations and thus hinder the visibility of alternative solutions. In so doing, I note the possibility for the empirically oriented arena of water justice scholarship to be complemented by a philosophical approach that emphasises the situated, fluid and lively materiality of water and water quality.

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Section: Assemblage Theory and Immanent Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assemblage Theory and Immanent Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%