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Compost Politics: Experimenting with Togetherness in Vermicomposting

Compost Politics: Experimenting with Togetherness in Vermicomposting Emerging from the question of how to live together with our planet, more-than-human approaches to interspecies relations have often presented ‘cozy’ versions of conviviality (Whatmore 2002; Haraway 2008; Hinchliffe 2010). This was usually set against a (supposedly) exclusionary politics of nature, in a move that betrayed a still largely humanist ethics. From the focus on friendly companions, to the attention to practices of care or living-together, the notion of companion species and their entanglements with humans has been polarized towards a pleasant and ‘nice’ version of coexistence. But, dealing with composting, it becomes clear that relations with the environment are never so neat and clean. What are, then, the modes of being together with the ‘dirty’ side of the ‘green’? What practices emerge at the mundane interstices of the ‘big picture’ of a functional ecology? Wasting, eating, rotting, consuming, transforming and becoming-with are brought together in a variety of ways in practices of composting-with earthworms. Reporting on our own and others' attempts to ‘live-together’ with earthworms, this paper tracks the non-relations and asymmetries of the transformations of more-than-human materialities inside (and outside) domestic composting bins. We argue that the example of living-together with dung earthworms sheds light on the interplays between attachment and detachment (Candea 2010), shifting the notion of conviviality from a green and comfortable ‘democratic collective’ (Latour 2004) to a messy, yet constantly productive and on-going coexistence. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environmental Humanities Duke University Press

Compost Politics: Experimenting with Togetherness in Vermicomposting

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Copyright
Copyright: © Abrahamsson and Bertoni 2014
ISSN
2201-1919
eISSN
2201-1919
DOI
10.1215/22011919-3614962
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Emerging from the question of how to live together with our planet, more-than-human approaches to interspecies relations have often presented ‘cozy’ versions of conviviality (Whatmore 2002; Haraway 2008; Hinchliffe 2010). This was usually set against a (supposedly) exclusionary politics of nature, in a move that betrayed a still largely humanist ethics. From the focus on friendly companions, to the attention to practices of care or living-together, the notion of companion species and their entanglements with humans has been polarized towards a pleasant and ‘nice’ version of coexistence. But, dealing with composting, it becomes clear that relations with the environment are never so neat and clean. What are, then, the modes of being together with the ‘dirty’ side of the ‘green’? What practices emerge at the mundane interstices of the ‘big picture’ of a functional ecology? Wasting, eating, rotting, consuming, transforming and becoming-with are brought together in a variety of ways in practices of composting-with earthworms. Reporting on our own and others' attempts to ‘live-together’ with earthworms, this paper tracks the non-relations and asymmetries of the transformations of more-than-human materialities inside (and outside) domestic composting bins. We argue that the example of living-together with dung earthworms sheds light on the interplays between attachment and detachment (Candea 2010), shifting the notion of conviviality from a green and comfortable ‘democratic collective’ (Latour 2004) to a messy, yet constantly productive and on-going coexistence.

Journal

Environmental Humanities – Duke University Press

Published: May 1, 2014

References

  • Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning
    Barad, Karen Michelle
  • Soil and Worm: On Eating as Relating
    Bertoni, Filippo
  • Environmental Issues: Writing a More-Than-Human Urban Geography
    Braun, Bruce
  • Gender Trouble : Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
    Butler, Judith
  • Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay
    Callon, Michel Law, John
  • “I Fell in Love with Carlos the Meerkat”: Engagement and Detachment in Human–Animal Relations
    Candea, Matei
  • Internal Others: Ethnographies of Naturalism
    Candea, Matei Alcayna, Stevens, Lys
  • Where the Wild Things are Now: Domestication Reconsidered
    Cassidy, R. Mullin, M. H.
  • Composting for Dummies
    Cromell, Cathy
  • The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits
    Darwin, Charles
  • Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation
    de Castro, Eduardo Vivieros
  • Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes: Conceptual Reflections Beyond ‘Politics.’
    De La Cadena, Marisol
  • The Body We Care For: Figures of Anthropo-Zoo-Genesis
    Despret, Vinciane
  • Feasting on People. Eating Animals and Humans in Amazonia
    Fausto, Carlos
  • Mites
    Ranch, Happy
  • When Species Meet
    Haraway, Donna
  • Animal Farm Love Stories
    Harbers, Hans Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • An Attempt at a ‘Compositionist Manifesto.’
    Latour, Bruno
  • Politics of Nature : How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy
    Latour, Bruno
  • Reassembling the Social
    Latour, Bruno
  • Care and Killing. Tensions in Veterinary Practice
    Law, John Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • Regulation of Microbial Activities in Functional Domains of Roots and Invertebrates
    Lavelle, P. et al Buscot, F. Varma, A.
  • Moving Image Methodologies for More-Than-Human Geographies
    Lorimer, Jamie
  • The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice
    Mol, Annemarie
  • I Eat an Apple. On Theorizing Subjectivities
    Mol, Annemarie
  • Empiricist Interventions: Strategy and Tactics on the Ontopolitical Battlefield
    Munk, Anders Kristian Abrahamsson, Sebastian
  • The Worm Book: The Complete Guide to Worms in Your Garden
    Nancarrow, Loren Taylor, Janet Hogan
  • Dealing with mites in earthworm bins
  • Agencement/Assemblage
    Phillips, John
  • Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy
    Rancière, Jacques
  • A mite is a mite is a mite is a mite not quite
  • Why are my worms trying to escape?
  • Good Farming. Control or Care?
    Singleton, Vicky Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • The Cosmopolitical Proposal
    Stengers, Isabelle Latour, Bruno Weibel, Peter
  • Eating (and Feeding)
    Strathern, Marilyn
  • Partial Connections
    Strathern, Marilyn
  • From Born to Made: Technology, Biology and Space
    Thrift, Nigel
  • Tarde on Drugs, or Measures against Suicide
    Vargas, E. Candea, Matei
  • Other organisms in the bin
  • Hybrid Geographies Natures, Cultures, Spaces
    Whatmore, Sarah
  • Aesthetics of Loss: Biodiversity, Banal Violence and Biotic Subjects
    Yusoff, Kathryn
  • Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning
    Barad, Karen Michelle
  • Soil and Worm: On Eating as Relating
    Bertoni, Filippo
  • Environmental Issues: Writing a More-Than-Human Urban Geography
    Braun, Bruce
  • Gender Trouble : Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
    Butler, Judith
  • Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay
    Callon, Michel Law, John
  • “I Fell in Love with Carlos the Meerkat”: Engagement and Detachment in Human–Animal Relations
    Candea, Matei
  • Internal Others: Ethnographies of Naturalism
    Candea, Matei Alcayna, Stevens, Lys
  • Where the Wild Things are Now: Domestication Reconsidered
    Cassidy, R. Mullin, M. H.
  • Composting for Dummies
    Cromell, Cathy
  • The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits
    Darwin, Charles
  • Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation
    de Castro, Eduardo Vivieros
  • Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes: Conceptual Reflections Beyond ‘Politics.’
    De La Cadena, Marisol
  • The Body We Care For: Figures of Anthropo-Zoo-Genesis
    Despret, Vinciane
  • Feasting on People. Eating Animals and Humans in Amazonia
    Fausto, Carlos
  • Mites
    Ranch, Happy
  • When Species Meet
    Haraway, Donna
  • Animal Farm Love Stories
    Harbers, Hans Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • An Attempt at a ‘Compositionist Manifesto.’
    Latour, Bruno
  • Politics of Nature : How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy
    Latour, Bruno
  • Reassembling the Social
    Latour, Bruno
  • Care and Killing. Tensions in Veterinary Practice
    Law, John Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • Regulation of Microbial Activities in Functional Domains of Roots and Invertebrates
    Lavelle, P. et al Buscot, F. Varma, A.
  • Moving Image Methodologies for More-Than-Human Geographies
    Lorimer, Jamie
  • The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice
    Mol, Annemarie
  • I Eat an Apple. On Theorizing Subjectivities
    Mol, Annemarie
  • Empiricist Interventions: Strategy and Tactics on the Ontopolitical Battlefield
    Munk, Anders Kristian Abrahamsson, Sebastian
  • The Worm Book: The Complete Guide to Worms in Your Garden
    Nancarrow, Loren Taylor, Janet Hogan
  • Dealing with mites in earthworm bins
  • Agencement/Assemblage
    Phillips, John
  • Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy
    Rancière, Jacques
  • A mite is a mite is a mite is a mite not quite
  • Why are my worms trying to escape?
  • Good Farming. Control or Care?
    Singleton, Vicky Mol, A. Moser, Ingunn Pols, Jeanette
  • The Cosmopolitical Proposal
    Stengers, Isabelle Latour, Bruno Weibel, Peter
  • Eating (and Feeding)
    Strathern, Marilyn
  • Partial Connections
    Strathern, Marilyn
  • From Born to Made: Technology, Biology and Space
    Thrift, Nigel
  • Tarde on Drugs, or Measures against Suicide
    Vargas, E. Candea, Matei
  • Other organisms in the bin
  • Hybrid Geographies Natures, Cultures, Spaces
    Whatmore, Sarah
  • Aesthetics of Loss: Biodiversity, Banal Violence and Biotic Subjects
    Yusoff, Kathryn