Hybrid Nature : Sewage Treatment and the Contradictions of the Industrial Ecosystem.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1 Natural vs. Artificial: "The Right Way to Dispose of Town Sewage" -- Land Treatment as the Right and Natural Way to Dispose of Sewage -- Naturalizing Biology -- "Nature's Own Methods" -- Contesting the Natural -- Rejecting Bacteria -- Industrializing Biology -- Activated Sludge -- Creating an Ecosystem -- Industrializing the Ecosystem -- 2 Public vs. Private: "Nature Must Be Circumvented" -- The Septic Tank Syndicate -- Activated Sludge Inc. -- Patents and Professionals -- Sewage and the Public Interest -- Public Research -- Monopolizing Natural Processes -- "The Chaos of Pure Science and Natural Processes" -- The Rise of Private Industrial Research -- 3 Craft vs. Science: "Be an Operator, Not a Valve Turner" -- Process Control -- Process Control in Sewage Treatment -- "Skilled Control of the Process Will Be Essential" -- "A Living System" -- An "Unsavoury" Occupation -- "If Only We Could Measure It" -- The Visible and the Invisible -- Complexity and Alienation -- 4 Profit vs. Purification: "Sewage Is Something to Be Got Rid Of" -- The "Search for 'El Dorado' in the Cities' Sewers" -- Crossness and Barking -- "A Mischievous Error" -- The Rise of Biological Treatment -- Profit and Purification in America -- Milwaukee and "Sewer Socialism" -- Milorganite® -- "Plus Values" -- "A Fancy Name...Helps a Lot" -- "We Are a Sanitary Facility" -- 5 The Contradictions Continue: Sewage Treatment since the Clean Water Act -- Profit vs. Purification -- Craft vs. Science -- Public vs. Private -- Natural vs. Artificial -- Biological Sewage Treatment in the Twenty-first Century -- 6 From Sewage to Biotech: "What We Have before Us Is an Industrial Product" -- Biotechnology and the Contradictions of the Industrial Ecosystem -- The Expanding Industrial Ecosystem.

Hybridizing Sewage, Biotechnology, and Nature -- 7 Conclusion: The Living Machine® -- Notes -- Introduction -- 1 Natural vs. Artificial -- 2 Public vs. Private -- 3 Craft vs. Science -- 4 Profit vs. Purification -- 5 The Contradictions Continue -- 6 From Sewage to Biotech -- 7 Conclusion -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- Urban and Industrial Environments Series.

A history of of the industrial ecosystem that focuses on the biological sewage treatment plant as an early example.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.