What form do the current and future catastrophes of the Anthropocene take? Adapting a concept from Rod Nixon, this communication makes a case for the notion of slow catastrophes, whose unfolding in space and time is uneven and entangled. Taking the events of Cape Town’s Day Zero drought as a case study, this paper examines the politics and poetics of water in the Anthropocene, and the implications of Anthropogenic climate change for urban life. It argues that rather than being understood as an inert resource, fresh drinking water is a complex object constructed at the intersection between natural systems, cultural imaginaries, and social, political and economic interests. The extraordinary events of Day Zero raised the specter of Mad Max-style water wars. They also led to the development of new forms of solidarity, with water acting as a social leveler. The paper argues that the events in Cape Town open a window onto the future, to the extent that it describes something about what happens when the added stresses of climate change are mapped onto already-contested social and political situations.
Soul in the City happened in the summer of 2004 in London. Its impact on the UK Christian youth scene has been wide and varied - some loved it; some hated it. It brought 9,000 young people to London to engage in 'mission'. But did it? Was it really just a Christian themed package holiday with mission as the main day trips? This paper draws on reflection from participation in the planning and running of Soul in the City (SITC) and textual analysis of publicity material. Whist primarily a theological reflection, significant use is made of sociological and anthropological thinking on 'tourism' to analyse phenomena observed in SITC. This assessment illustrates the emergence of a tourism motif in youth mission and highlights key missiological limitations and possibilities that this paradigm
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