| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5073554 | Geoforum | 2016 | 12 Pages |
â¢Hydrosocial territories entwine physical, social, political and symbolic dimensions.â¢Ilisu Dam's actor coalitions envision divergent hydro-social territories.â¢The dam project is not purely about governing water but also about governing people.â¢Actors construct techno-political discourses to (de-)justify dam materialization.â¢Multi-actor and multi-scalar coalitions are built to strengthen counter imaginaries.
Dam development in southeastern Turkey is a highly-disputed issue, fanned by the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, socio-environmental and historical-cultural concerns, and international geopolitical interests. This paper focuses on discussions around the Ilisu Dam and shows how different actor coalitions imagine different hydrosocial territories regarding this mega-hydraulic project currently under construction. Imaginaries, counter-imaginaries and endeavours to materialize them go far beyond technical projects, portraying the dam to (re)configure the territory physically, ecologically, socio-economically, symbolically and discursively. The paper embeds competing hydro-territorial constructs and claims within an analysis of governmentality and the multi-scalar and multi-issue politics of dam opponents.
