Assembling and re-assembling Asian carp: The Chicago area waterways system as a space of urban politics

The assemblage of the Chicago Area Waterways System (CAWS), including the collection of invasive species known as Asian carp, offers a way to understand how the varied properties and capacities of water have shaped and continue to shape the City of Chicago and the region around it. In the process, the CAWS demonstrates how the city and region might be investigated as spaces of urban politics regarding what should be allowed to flow through the city and what should be blocked. The CAWS includes not just the Chicago River, whose flow has been reversed, but also a system of canals that unites the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. The water within the CAWS plays an important role in two different ways: as excess in times of heavy rainfall that needs to be carried away to prevent its unwanted presence in streets and basements; and as a means of circulating other substances, perhaps most importantly the sewage of the City of Chicago.