Jan Bartsch

Metabolic Apparatusses in or of the Anthropocene. The Political Ecology of Aquaponics

My Research is concerned with metabolic apparatuses in or of the Anthropocene. More specifically I am working on the Political Ecology of Aquaponics. Aquaponics is an experimental technology in which seemingly natural metabolic cycles between fish and plants are used to produce food. Against this background, I address the seemingly contradictory relationship between economic rationalities and ecological sustainability within alternative food production. I try to grasp this relation with the term metabolism in order to show immanent power relations on the one hand and to trace the diverse entanglements of human and other-than-human worlds on the other hand. Through an ethnographically informed understanding of metabolism, it is possible to show how new forms of urban food production imply political factors and at the same time entail contingencies and unpredictable outcomes.