“The pesticides burned the grass and the know-how”: Farmers’ oral history and chemoethnography of Swiss Jura slowly violent waterscapes

Abstract

Farmers and beekeepers of the Swiss Jura mountains have been exposed to toxicity and socioeconomic vulnerability. Based on a combination of oral history and chemo-ethnographic interviews, research participants explore how water, chemicals, and social activities are interacting and intra-acting to melt into what we call ‘hydrochemosocial hybrids’. They narrated their histories of practices affecting the quality of water and ecosystems. Their testimonies indicate that controversial projects of agriculture intensification inflict slow violence by exposure to toxic chemicals. Participants respond to this violence in quiet forms of solidarity, care, and resistance. Our analysis at the junction of chemoethnography and research on hydrosocial territory combines theoretical lenses into an opening field of ‘hydrochemosocial research’.