Andrea Ballestero

ANDREA BALLESTERO, Rice University, Houston, Texas, was awarded a grant in April 2021 to aid research on “Expanding the Social World Downwards: Aquafers, Science, and Property in Costa Rica.” The project studied how social life above the surface of the Earth intersects with the material world below it, particularly with aquifers. It focused on Costa Rica — a country with 44% of its territory above aquifers, deemed a global “eco-laboratory,” and which is experimenting with a governance system that centers aquifers in environmental planning. The project explored the transition from horizontal to volumetric spatial relations through an ethnographic and multi-modal design to chart: 1) the effects of increased circulation of scientific knowledge about aquifers; 2) the relations between surface and subsurface; and 3) the volumetric transformation of property as a fundamental social institution. Support helped fund the collection materials for the creation of an Underground Archive, an online repository that brings together news sources, historical documents, and cartographic materials that shape and reflect this transition.