Illicit cultivation and urban informality: Domesticating agritech as atmospheric regulation

Source abstract

This paper examines illicit domestic cannabis cultivation as a form of urban infrastructural adaptation and informal atmospheric regulation. It introduces the concept of domesticating agritech to describe how cultivation technologies are repurposed within ordinary dwellings to produce controlled microclimates for plant growth. Clandestine home cultivation involves covertly transforming residential space into climate-controlled agronomic infrastructure, integrating LED lighting, hydroponic systems, and automated environmental controls. Operating in legal gray zones, these practices bypass formal agricultural and planning regulations while reconfiguring housing as decentralized sites of production. The result is a distributed form of urban agronomy in which households actively modulate indoor climates to sustain illicit crops while minimizing detection. Engaging debates on urban informality and infrastructure, the paper shows how these practices reshape domestic space, intensify energy use, and complicate regimes of urban governance and regulatory visibility. It argues that illicit cultivation reveals a wider process through which atmospheric control is being internalized within the home, extending the infrastructuralization of climate into everyday urban life.