Hydrosensory Autoethnography Sensing Belonging and Governance in Anthropogenic Waters of Limburg, Belgium

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.