Lagoonscapes

The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities

Hydrosensory Autoethnography

Sensing Belonging and Governance in Anthropogenic Waters of Limburg, Belgium

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Abstract

Is it possible to bodily sense how water is governed? By framing belonging as a practice that is intimate, situated, and ethically attuned to the More-than-Human, I reflect on how institutional constraints on waters essentially reduce the possibilities for belonging to the water’s edge. This paper introduces hydrosensory autoethnography as a method for sensing such constraints from within. Through encounters with three post-extractive lakes in Limburg, Belgium, where proximity to water is controlled, heavily restricted, or even prohibited, I trace forms of intimacy that remain available in the fractures of what governance leaves open.


open access | peer reviewed

Submitted: March 6, 2026 | Accepted: June 1, 2026 | Published Aug. 6, 2026 | Language: en

Keywords Water • Posthumanism • Hydrofeminism • Sensory ethnography • More-than-Human • Belonging • Water governance

Copyright © 2026 Kseniia Obukhova. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2026/01/010