- “Without water, we cannot survive” – Entanglements of water and young people in high-tech Hyderabad
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Abstract:
- This paper examines the various dimensions that are entangled within production of urban waters and the lives of young people living in Hyderabad through a political ecological lens. In particular, focus is placed on the theorisation of water as hybrid socio-nature and the hydro-social cycle where water and society are mutually co-constitutive. Drawing on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two neighbourhoods within the high-tech spaces of Hyderabad, Madhapur and Nanakramguda in December 2019, I argue how these high-tech spaces (of inclusion and exclusion) in Hyderabad are co-constitutive with the urban water flows; interrogating the varied experiences among the young people living in these spaces. In unpacking the entanglements, I argue that the access to these urban waters are co-constitutive of the young people’s social class, mobility and the production of high-tech spaces. However, while the flows of urban water limit water access and use, the young people living in these spaces have demonstrated their ability to show resilience and negotiate their access and use of these waters through their everyday practices. Broadly, this paper contributes to the understanding that water is more than just a product of nature, but rather, socio-nature which is a product of multiple complex entanglements and intersections of space and the subjectivities of the young people in Hyderabad.
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