ABSTRACT
This chapter explores pollution in cities and points to the entanglement of global ideas on environmental issues, sustainability, ethics and social inequality in contemporary urban agglomerations. In revealing the controversies and injustices that emerge over polluting substances and subjects, we highlight that pollution is shaped by normative and discursive regimes but simultaneously by its materiality that exercises power and agency in its own right.
These processes are particularly evident in Auckland, New Zealand, as notions of ‘green and clean’ possess a strong relevance in terms of city branding, national identity and civic pride. Drawing on a political ecology approach, we argue that ‘clean and green’ parameters acquired an ethical authority that impact governance, aesthetics and notions of a ‘good’ and livable city. However, combating pollution often legitimises the interests of privileged urban dwellers while muffling other voices of the urban matrix. Further, fighting pollution may produce unintended consequences and result in new forms of self-governance, subjectivation and empowerment as urban dwellers are encouraged to guide themselves as self-reliant and responsible subjects, appropriating sustainable practices. At the same time, these expectations may create new exclusions. This chapter offers a critical reflection on notions of both pollution and sustainability by revealing the underlying structures that contribute to inequality, power imbalances and governance strategies in urban everyday life. It concludes with the potential of an engaged anthropology to tackle pollution in cities, emphasising its sociocultural dimensions and material agency, as technical solutions alone will not suffice to come to terms with its complexities.
