Paper short abstract:

Climate justice often foregoes contextual specificities in order to allow for its conceptual mobility. This paper explores the historical and spatial terrains through which climate justice draws its legal and political currency through a focus on hydropolitics in a world of global boiling.

Paper long abstract:

In an era where climate futures are shaped by “scientific knowledge,” the situational insights crucial to ethnographic research are becoming increasingly vital. This paper delves into the rich tapestry of Southern African lifeworlds, deeply interconnected with their ecologies—primarily soil and water. It reveals how long-term participant observation is not just a supportive tool but an essential force in climate litigation and justice politics. The complex issues surrounding access to and contamination of underground water raise significant methodological and ontological questions. By examining how specific geographies, histories, land ownership, and usage intersect with the invisible flows of water and its abstraction, this paper challenges the broader conceptualization of climate justice. It investigates how this concept permeates the legal sphere and its far-reaching implications for the “more than human” world.