LeWa

The ‘LeWa’ (Leben am Wasser, life by the water) project conducts an exemplary investigation into the socio-cultural factors that contribute to the everyday pollution of bodies of water. Using the Riachuelo and the Río de la Plata rivers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) as examples, ‘LeWa’ focuses on the individual and institutional ‘water relationships’ by using qualitative research methods, and reconstructs societal value judgements concerning water. ‘LeWa’ not only empirically analyses an especially dramatic case of water pollution and dysfunctional (non-responsive) water relationships—the Riachuelo is considered to be the ‘dirtiest river in the world’, while Buenos Aires is said to ‘turn its back on the Río de la Plata’—, it also opens up a new field of application of the theoretical perspective of the ‘sociology of our relationship to the world’. The project thus provides social-scientific basic knowledge for the study of unsustainable approaches to bodies of water, and contributes to the cluster’s goal to create a new, more comprehensive basis for the assessment of water.