Paper short abstract:

We explore how notions of automation and control alter the ecology of sensing practices within the Danish water industry. How do more-than-human networks of sensemaking (in)form the future history of water? And how is ethnographic sensemaking transformed when making sense of water is datafied?

Paper long abstract:

Water management has always been carried out in networks of humans, technologies and infrastructures, and information about water – its availability, flow, and pressure – has been crucial for securing water supply for as long as humans have built water infrastructures. In recent decades, this information is increasingly becoming digital, but with the introduction of automation and AI, water, flows, data on water, and the human relations around these are altered, demanding renewed ethnographic attention.

We explore modes of sensemaking in Danish water supply systems, and how these are transformed through digitalization. How do digital technologies alter the ecology of sensing practices within the Danish water industry, and what repercussions do these transformations have on human-water relations?

Digital water technologies are perceived by its pioneers as modular – comprised of independent and potentially scalable units that may unlock great socio-economic benefits – and to carry the promise of solving global water problems through context-based solutions, along with a new global export adventure for the Danish water industry. The narrative is that, with the introduction of machine learning and integrated devices, decision-making in everyday water management transitions from being driven by “gut feelings”, to solid and data-driven accuracy. But, to utility operators, automatization prompts a sense of loss of situated knowledges and control over the infrastructure...

How do such novel forms and relations between holism and the particular (in)form the present and future history of water? And how is ethnographic sensemaking transformed when making sense of water is datafied?