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Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change

This dissertation advocates inclusive and integrated more-than-human relations as humans, technoscience, and nature become increasingly entangled in contexts of climate change and socio-ecological crisis. Researching in the environmental humanities between 2017 and 2020, I situate my study in Cape T...

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Main Author: Polic, Deanna
Other Authors: Solomon, Nikiwe
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Environmental Humanities 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Polic, Deanna
author2 Solomon, Nikiwe
author_browse Polic, Deanna
Solomon, Nikiwe
author_facet Solomon, Nikiwe
Polic, Deanna
author_sort Polic, Deanna
collection Thesis
description This dissertation advocates inclusive and integrated more-than-human relations as humans, technoscience, and nature become increasingly entangled in contexts of climate change and socio-ecological crisis. Researching in the environmental humanities between 2017 and 2020, I situate my study in Cape Town, South Africa, where the fluctuations between water's abundance and absence—as evidenced by the 2018 drought—have necessitated new approaches to ontology and epistemology that critically disrupt dominant systems of thought. Using the Cape Flats Aquifer and its aboveground area, the Philippi Horticultural Area, as my primary field sites, I focused on the legal battle that has surfaced between various human actors over land and water use, to explore how different human-nature relationships emerge, and to evaluate the social and environmental implications thereof. The overall inquiry guiding my research is how the Cape Flats Aquifer can make the case for multispecies relations by examining how it flows, or is brought into, existence. First, I present the different kinds of evidence that make the aquifer and its aboveground area un/seen; second, I assess whether alternative ways of evidencing the aquifer exist with a focus on farming practices in the Philippi Horticultural Area; third, I question what ought to be part of the aquifer evidentiary if sustainable, adaptive, and resilient human-nature relations are to be achieved? I argue that humans, multispecies, and earthly bodies such as the aquifer ought to be understood as relational, multiple, and intimately implicated in each other in the face of unpredictable climatic conditions.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:20.437Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Environmental Humanities
publisherStr Environmental Humanities
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36041 Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change Polic, Deanna Solomon, Nikiwe Green, Lesley environmental humanities This dissertation advocates inclusive and integrated more-than-human relations as humans, technoscience, and nature become increasingly entangled in contexts of climate change and socio-ecological crisis. Researching in the environmental humanities between 2017 and 2020, I situate my study in Cape Town, South Africa, where the fluctuations between water's abundance and absence—as evidenced by the 2018 drought—have necessitated new approaches to ontology and epistemology that critically disrupt dominant systems of thought. Using the Cape Flats Aquifer and its aboveground area, the Philippi Horticultural Area, as my primary field sites, I focused on the legal battle that has surfaced between various human actors over land and water use, to explore how different human-nature relationships emerge, and to evaluate the social and environmental implications thereof. The overall inquiry guiding my research is how the Cape Flats Aquifer can make the case for multispecies relations by examining how it flows, or is brought into, existence. First, I present the different kinds of evidence that make the aquifer and its aboveground area un/seen; second, I assess whether alternative ways of evidencing the aquifer exist with a focus on farming practices in the Philippi Horticultural Area; third, I question what ought to be part of the aquifer evidentiary if sustainable, adaptive, and resilient human-nature relations are to be achieved? I argue that humans, multispecies, and earthly bodies such as the aquifer ought to be understood as relational, multiple, and intimately implicated in each other in the face of unpredictable climatic conditions. 2022-03-10T13:46:28Z 2022-03-10T13:46:28Z 2021 2022-03-10T13:46:07Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36041 eng application/pdf Environmental Humanities Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle environmental humanities
Polic, Deanna
Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
title_full Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
title_fullStr Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
title_full_unstemmed Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
title_short Ebbs and flows: more-than-human encounters with the Cape Flats Aquifer in a context of climate change
title_sort ebbs and flows more than human encounters with the cape flats aquifer in a context of climate change
topic environmental humanities
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36041
work_keys_str_mv AT policdeanna ebbsandflowsmorethanhumanencounterswiththecapeflatsaquiferinacontextofclimatechange