Journal18
https://www.journal18.org/
#20 Clean (Fall 2025)

Issue Editors
Maarten Delbeke, ETH Zurich
Noémie Etienne, University of Vienna
Nikos Magouliotis, ETH Zurich

ARTICLES

Economies of Waste: Revolutionary Administration and the Afterlives of the Kings of Notre-Dame
Demetra Vogiatzaki
https://www.journal18.org/issue-20/economies-of-waste-revolutionary-administration-and-the-afterlives-of-the-notre-dame-kings/

“Beneath the Waters of a Universal Ocean:” Containing, Contaminating, and Cleaning the Ganges River in Varanasi
Ushma Thakrar
https://www.journal18.org/issue-20/beneath-the-waters-of-a-universal-ocean-containing-contaminating-and-cleaning-the-ganges-river-in-varanasi/

Piss, Poison, and other Paths between Scotland and England in Caricature since 1745
Laura Golobish
https://www.journal18.org/issue-20/piss-poison-and-other-paths-between-scotland-and-england-in-caricature-since-1745/

CONVERSATION PIECE

The Grammar of Cleaning: A Conversation
Maarten Delbeke, Noémie Etienne, and Nikos Magouliotis
https://www.journal18.org/issue-20/the-grammar-of-cleaning-a-conversation/

Cleaning is never a neutral act. In the eighteenth century, acts of cleaning became a way to decide what counted as disorder, to separate asserted purity from designated pollution, and to display authority over matter, space, and people. From the forecourt of Paris’s Notre-Dame to the Ganges river in Varanasi to Scotland’s filthy privies, practices of cleaning have shaped political order. Racial issues, colonization, and the management of public space revolved around the idea and implementation of cleaning, which could also involve the deliberate relocation or erasure of human beings.