Paper short abstract:

What roles do sand and concrete play in ‘curing’ and ‘protecting’ the Mediterranean city? In Marseille, where many buildings are at acute risk of coastal erosion, the company Seacure develops 'natural concrete,' a peculiar “geosocial formation” to stabilize shoreline infrastructure.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on work that investigates sand to disentangle the sociomaterial foundations of cities (John 2021) and conceptualize the porosity of geospatial relations (Jamieson 2021), this paper reflects on ongoing fieldwork on the production of ‘natural concrete’ in Marseille. How does this emergent body of literature speak to and allow to conceptualize the use of natural concrete along Mediterranean and Atlantic shores? What roles do sand and concrete play in ‘curing’ and ‘protecting’ the Mediterranean city? In Marseille, where many buildings are at acute risk of coastal erosion, the company Seacure offers a peculiar “geosocial formation” (Clark and Yusoff 2017) to fix corroding jetties or stabilize shoreline infrastructure. The production of natural concrete combines human, material, and abiotic agencies (Gesing 2021) to promote a ‘blue urbanism.’ Questioning the environmental impact of reckless urban expansion into the sea, this urbanism incorporates sediment and seawater into new material and economic configurations that can be put to work pretty much anywhere, regardless of historical or social context. Fixing the sociomaterial foundations of port cities by mobilizing seawater benefits a niche economy that attempts to decarbonize construction. How do attempts to cure port infrastructure map onto urban economies, such as Marseille’s, that are “disintegrating” themselves (Dell’Umbria 2006:16)? I argue that sediment in the Mediterranean reveals “a porous continuity between dispossession and accumulation” (Jamieson 2021) in that it plays a role in making and unmaking territory and belonging at various places and scales.