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Short abstract:

This paper takes water as an entry point of an investigation into the homes of the urban Colombia. It combines auto-ethnographic-exercises and water-quality-work, engaging with principles of equity in vulnerable settings. Community research assistants had labor contracts as research assistants.

Long abstract:

We know little about the socio-ecological life within low-income homes in the urban South. This, despite the fact that it is in these homes that many of the processes sustaining life in the city take place and Global South cities are home to the majority of residents worldwide. This paper takes water as an entry point of an investigation into the homes of the urban Colombia. It follows water, as it is essential for sustaining everyday life, and goes beyond it into other material/atmospheric components of the home. Stored/stagnant waters are never only water but are also home to large communities of organisms such as bacteria and mosquitoes that eventually continue their lives outside of water.

It combines auto-ethnographic-exercises (AEE) and water-quality-work (WQW). Through AEE, community members acted as community research assistants (CRAs) and wrote/talked about experiences, emphasizing everyday interactions with different types of water, pollution, and mosquitoes. In turn, the microbiological changes in domestic water, as well as the breeding of mosquitoes, were captured by CRAs through basic WQW inside homes, including pupal surveys. The combination of AEE and WQW engages with principles of openness and equity in vulnerable research settings. AEE allows for multiple perspectives and increases the source of data and information contributing to a more in-depth understanding of the home, and, in combination with WQW, enables theory construction on the interconnectedness between politics/power and the material life of water. CRAs were remunerated and had labor contracts for their work as research assistants.