Presentation short abstract:

The “wild” is often imagined out of the “urban.” However, human-more-than-human relations and collaborations take place in in urban settings in intriguing and interesting ways. This study ethnographically examines the possibilities of such relations in the urban natures of Asunción, Paraguay.

Presentation long abstract:

The floodplains of Asunción, capital city of Paraguay, have been going through major transformation. Since 2010, construction of a large-scale river front avenue, bordering the city’s outskirts from North to South, has started. These areas of the city, known as Bañados, are home to marginalized semi-nomadic communities that cyclically move with the flooding of the Paraguayan river. Similarly, despite the proximity to the built urban environments and pollution, these areas are also home for a surprising variety of fauna and flora. Forming a unique socio-ecology with the neighboring river and its ecosystem, the Bañados communities’ semi-nomadic lifestyle have contributed to a slower form of (un)settled urbanization. This have facilitated spontaneous yet complex more-than-human collaborations. The floodplains of Asunción are hybrid spaces, where the normative separation of the “wild” and the “urban” is often unclear. The riverfront avenue project, however, fails to recognize these areas’ historically rooted socio-ecologies. With the floodplains and natural ponds of the south region of the city being sand filled, this year estranged crabs appeared in the streets of Asunción’s south neighborhoods. Thousands of kilometers from the sea in a landlock country, many did not know crabs can live in freshwater. Crabs and frogs’ street fights are now common. In the North, car traffic is often interrupted by large yellow anacondas, mysteriously crossing their ways between the city and the river. Ethnographically looking at the “built” and “wild” infrastructures of Asunción, this study examines the temporal and spatial clash between different ways of imagining an urban nature.