Carbonous concealment : governing 'wild' substances and subterranean storage in an era of climate change
Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic field research that I conducted in Houston, Texas since late 2018, I explore subterranean storage arrangements utilised by the US hydrocarbon industry. I argue that storage is vital not only to its pluri-temporal strategies but to the outward projection of good governance. Natural gas, I show, has evolved from excess nuisance, to liability, to potential asset turned commodity in ways that parallel unfolding understandings and treatments of carbon dioxide. Governance and subterranean carbonous storage arrangements, I argue, are tied to the materiality of liquid versus gaseous hydrocarbons and to how understandings of this materiality have changed. Paying attention to what these storage spaces mean and to whom can lend insights into why storage is utilised and to what effect.
Citation
Field , S 2024 , ' Carbonous concealment : governing 'wild' substances and subterranean storage in an era of climate change ' , Antipode , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13026
Publication
Antipode
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0066-4812Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement no.715146.Collections
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