Discard through a foucauldian lens : the case of fisherfolk at Karachi's Korangi coast
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Date
2023
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Thesis (M.S.) - Bogazici University. Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2024.
Abstract
Indigenous Sindhi fisherfolk have used the sea as their means of livelihood since before colonial times in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. This thesis studies two fishing villages (Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri Goth) dating back to the pre-colonial era in Pakistan, located in Karachi's Korangi district—named for the Korangi Creek that runs along it. Over the last decade, Korangi's coastline has deteriorated due to the timber mafia, which cuts down its mangroves to sell for profit. Solid waste dumping by industries and municipal authorities is also routine at the Korangi coast. The land mafia— which includes politicians, police, and, most importantly, land developers—is an active player in the garbage dumping and land grabbing in Karachi, and since 2005 have been reclaiming land from Karachi's seas through the use of compacted, weighted garbage. This thesis aims to answer how the fisherfolk's relationship with the sea has changed due to heavy migration, population changes, and material discard. It analyzes how development and its associated top-down "green" or sanitation-focused discourses are sustained through violence against Karachi's fisherfolk, who are "Othered" through dispossession of their land, narratives of cleanliness, and consistently changing definitions of legality. This thesis uses a Foucauldian discard studies lens to view how power manifests in disposal at the coast, dispossessing fisherfolk of their rights, while a narrative of "greater good" is upheld by the institutions repressing dissenting fisherfolk. It studies how Karachi's marginalized populations are discarded by the central and municipal governance institutions.