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Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on how PFAS are configured as environmental data objects and infrastructures in Denmark as climate change intensifies their risks. It also shows how digital archives support the study of PFAS–climate data practices as they reconfigure coastal place‑making and governance.

Paper long abstract

My paper examines how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) become environmental data objects and infrastructures in Denmark, especially as climate change exacerbates PFAS risks. Also known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are among the most persistent pollutants, yet recent research shows that rising temperatures, extreme rainfall, flooding, drought, and strong winds accelerate their mobility and expand exposure pathways. I thus approach PFAS as a climate‑exacerbated chemical hazard whose combinatory and cumulative risks challenge environmental governance regimes. I also show how PFAS data becomes integrated with intersecting climate risks in ways that reconfigure place-making and responsibility (Knox 2024).

My presentation draws on early ethnographic fieldwork among Danish researchers and enterprises developing PFAS data and knowledge infrastructures. Amid growing detection of PFAS in ocean sea spray and foam, I focus on how these infrastructures are situated and used within coastal communities. I follow emerging data practices to identify hotspots and inform remediation while addressing intersecting climate risks, examining how PFAS datasets integrate with flood‑risk, soil, and ocean‑surface data. Methodologically, I use a digital archive hosted on an instance of the Platform for Collaborative and Experimental Ethnography (PECE) that serves as an open research workspace for curating timelines, organizational profiles, and data visualizations that elicit reflection on PFAS–climate data double binds and gaps. My talk begins to theorize climate-exacerbated PFAS as an integrated data object and infrastructure, and invites feedback on the study design and on the use of ethnographic archives as sites where researchers and stakeholders jointly reconfigure PFAS–climate data in transformation.