Ana Paula Silva, Jiří Janáč and Benjamin Brendel were engaged in a 2016 ICOHTEC Congress session (Hydroimperialism, hydrocapitalism, communism and what else?) based on the assumption that dams are often seen as classic examples of technologies of display, used by central governments to demonstrate and legitimize their political and economic power. While big dams were predominantly designed, and interpreted as means to control nature, it has been noted that construction of dams, as well as any other measure aimed at regulating water, constitutes and represents various forms of political power. Not only water courses, but also entire societies were disciplined and controlled by means of water management – such was the core of the hydraulic mission (Molle et al. 2009). Thus, dams embodied preconceptions not only about nature, but also about peripheries and local knowledge, peoples, societies and cultures and systems of governance.”
The Hydroimperialism, Hydrocapitalism, Communism and Crises workshop took place at FCT-NOVA on the 6th and 7th of July 2017.
O workshop Hydroimperialism, Hydrocapitalism, Communism and Crises teve lugar na FCT-NOVA, nos dias 6 e 7 de Julho de 2017.