Abstract
This article extends understanding of the underground city and the workings of the urban backstage through a critical analysis of water infrastructure maintenance and repair. It is based on analysis of ethnographic work undertaken with water maintenance operatives on-site at 11 water infrastructure repair jobs between 2015 and 2016 in Bristol, England. In this article, we argue that water infrastructure maintenance and repair constitutes an important but largely unrecognised form of care work. We extend existing conceptual work by arguing that nonhumans can be vital participants within practices of care.
Highlights
Like many in the Global North, we wake on a winter morning to the ever-strange sounds of water moving through domestic radiators
We suggest that the figure of a repair operative feeling warm bathwater flowing from the domestic water systems is mending both highlights the lack of clear boundaries between ‘homes’ and ‘the urban backstage’ and shows how closely the activities taking place in the latter are linked to intimate forms of bodily care work
We have argued that the practices of urban water infrastructural maintenance can represent active and crucial sites of care
Summary
Like many in the Global North, we wake on a winter morning to the ever-strange sounds of water moving through domestic radiators. We approach the work of urban water infrastructure maintenance and repair as an assemblage of care, and build on the work of Puig de la Bellacassa[1] to explore the role of the nonhuman within these
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