In this paper, we use the notion of administrative precarity to refer to the vulnerability and insecurity experienced by marginalised and disadvantaged groups as a result of their interactions with ambiguous administrative procedures. Using the example of water infrastructure administration in Mumbai, specifically the experiences of ‘Pani Haq Samiti’– the ‘Right to Water campaign’– we formulate how administrative precarity and infrastructural violence intersect in transcalar practices of ambiguation in urban governance. We build on a nascent set of literature that illustrates how ambiguity in administrative processes is used as a tactic to avoid or deny the impacts of bureaucratic process of water and sanitation governance in Mumbai. We work through several examples of the ambiguous practices and paperwork involved in implementing the universal right to water in urban Mumbai with a specific focus on the challenges in non-notified slums. We demonstrate that the practices of ambiguation, are often entrenched in everyday interactions between citizens or activists and administrators on the ground. In enabling the continued withholding of water infrastructure these ambiguous bureaucracies create an administrative precarity and are thus constitutive to persistent infrastructural violence against marginalised groups. We show that everyday practices of activists and administrators provoke the labours of de-ambiguation as a pre-requisite to the implementation of infrastructural solutions to achieve the ‘Right to Water’ under administrative precarity. We call for more research on everyday practices of (de-)ambiguation, including highlighting the potentially transformative role that urban scholarship may take to support the labour of de-ambiguation.

中文翻译：

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行政歧义的日常实践和消除歧义的劳动：孟买为水利基础设施而奋斗


在本文中，我们使用行政不稳定性的概念来指代边缘化和弱势群体由于与模棱两可的行政程序互动而经历的脆弱性和不安全感。以孟买的水利基础设施管理为例，特别是“Pani Haq Samiti”——“水权运动”的经验——我们阐述了行政不稳定和基础设施暴力如何在城市治理中模糊的跨界实践中相互交织。我们以一组新生的文献为基础，这些文献说明了行政流程中的模糊性如何被用作避免或否认孟买水和卫生治理官僚程序影响的策略。我们研究了在孟买城市实施普遍用水权所涉及的模棱两可的做法和文书工作的几个例子，特别关注未通知贫民窟面临的挑战。我们证明，模棱两可的做法往往根深蒂固地存在于公民或活动家与实地管理人员之间的日常互动中。为了继续扣留水利基础设施，这些模棱两可的官僚机构造成了行政不稳定，因此构成了针对边缘化群体的持续基础设施暴力。我们表明，活动家和管理人员的日常实践引发了消除歧义的工作，这是实施基础设施解决方案的先决条件，以实现在行政不稳定的情况下实现“水权”。我们呼吁对（去）歧义的日常实践进行更多研究，包括强调城市学术在支持去歧义劳动方面可能发挥的潜在变革作用。