Experiments in Excreta to Energy: Sustainability Science and Bio-Necro Collaboration in Urban Ghana

In the quest for alternatives to energy extraversion and carbon-heavy extraction, transformation of waste to energy is growing worldwide. In Ghana's working-class city of Ashaiman, an international NGO converts faecal waste into electricity through a massive biodigester. Fed by public toilets,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cambridge anthropology 2020-09, Vol.38 (2), p.88
Main Author: Chalfin, Brenda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass energy
Commodity futures
Sustainable development
Waste management
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In the quest for alternatives to energy extraversion and carbon-heavy extraction, transformation of waste to energy is growing worldwide. In Ghana's working-class city of Ashaiman, an international NGO converts faecal waste into electricity through a massive biodigester. Fed by public toilets, the power is sold back to residents. Touted as an exemplar of sustainable development, Ashaiman's case demonstrates that when power comes from human waste, the entanglement of energopolitics and biopolitics, but also energopower and necropower - the political uses of death and decay - is undeniable. Premised on such 'bio-necro collaborations' and enabled by sustainability science, these interventions activate state monopolies of waste while assimilating bodily excesses of urban dwellers. Marking the intimate exploitations of internal energy frontiers, an ever-tightening circuitry of energy production and political-economic incorporation results.
ISSN:0305-7674
2047-7716
DOI:10.3167/cja.2020.380207