Power Tools for Justice

Hope is the difference between probability and possibility.

-Isabelle Stengers, A ‘Cosmo-Politics,’ Risk, Hope, Change

Bliss with 18 volts

My PhD advisor is fond of saying, “Use the wrong methods for the right questions.” I’ve taken this advice to heart: using hydrologic modeling to reveal the impacts of non-capitalist water economies, Q-factor surveys to gauge the role of the State, and ethnographic techniques to examine the roots of coastal estuarine pollution.

Most days this feels like trying to swat a fly with a ball-peen hammer. But in the spirit of possibility, today Oscar and I visited El Home Depot to spend part of my budget on tools. We bought the works: 18V drills, square shovels, and enough work gloves to outfit a small army. This equipment will be used in San Bernardo, a Tijuana community doing urban development through stormwater harvesting. We supply some necessary equipment, they provide the labor. And I now I'm an ethnographer with a proper tool belt.

Ethnography is dirty business. The idea behind the methodology is simple: muddy boots begat wisdom. Deep hanging-out is necessary to understand the people and places you study. “Participatory action research,” a type of ethnography, pushes this approach further. PAR implies that I, and not just Tijuanenses, pull on the boots as we labor to understand and make change.

Dirty business: Stormwater flows in Cañon Los Laureles

Take my project. One of my main goals is to understand how the informal water economy works. In an unregulated sector, who sets the rules for greywater reuse? Who rigs the rainwater cisterns? Does water harvesting provide a subsidy for household economies, and by how much? Does it follow capitalist logics or Mom’s list of chores? How do we think about the off-grid economy, which is not limited to Tijuana, but surfaces in spots all over the world, from New Delhi to rural Belize to my cousin’s backyard on Long Island?

Doing is thinking in PAR-speak. So in San Bernardo, I watch and work with their efforts to harvest stormwater. Bolstered by volunteer labor and donated funds, local folks are making permeable pavers (basically porous concrete) that will carpet their highly-eroded dirt streets (see above photo -yes, that's a road!), slow and absorb rainfall runoff, and create much-needed infrastructure. These efforts, in tandem with greywater reuse and rainwater harvesting, create what I like to call the “off-grid” water economy.

Pavers and non-capitalism in action

Stepping back, it’s fair to ask: what difference does one road make? If people are creating a non-capitalist water economy in the middle of a desert, so what? Besides cement, what makes change stick?

A few weeks back, I interviewed a U.S. volunteer. Bright-eyed and young, he accompanied about 80 UCSD students who spent the day repairing broken molds, mixing concrete, and casting pavers. I asked him why he sacrificed his Saturdays for hard labor in Tijuana, what motivated him to work on a tiny project that faced such great odds. The whine of power drills hung in the air around us. He thought for a few seconds, then looked me squarely in the eye. “I just want to be here,” he said.

Love, labor, and power tools: it just might be enough.