Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores how Klagenfurt’s climate neutrality aspirations intersect with hydro-social spaces, highlighting the tensions between urban development, ecological conservation, technology, and human-water interactions and imaginaries to emphasise a more holistic and equitable approach to water governance.

Paper Abstract:

The multifaceted role of water in urban climate change mitigation and adaptation is increasingly recognised but remains insufficiently integrated into sustainability policies, revealing not just the vulnerabilities of water systems but also the tensions within hydro-social spaces. Conflicts arise between urban development, ecological conservation, water practices, and the implementation of technological solutions, which could complicate efforts to achieve an equitable and sustainable urban future.

Focusing on the Austrian city of Klagenfurt's ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, I examine how water-related issues are framed and addressed. Through ethnographic research, I explore how water operates as a material, socio-cultural, and institutional reality, considering human and non-human actors, infrastructures, and the co-production of knowledge surrounding water management. With this in mind, I look at how local practices are linked to broader ecological temporalities, social inequalities, and other central urban concerns and priorities.

In the presentation, I shed light on the forces at work between overarching climate change objectives and local water systems and emphasise the need to consider cultural practices, ecological rhythms and social equity in water governance and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. By elucidating the interconnections between the symbolic, material, socio-cultural, political, economic, ecological, and technological dimensions of water and their intersection with transitions to climate neutrality in Klagenfurt, I reflect on the potential of "unwriting" for an equitable and net-zero urban future.