Amelie Huber | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (original) (raw)
Papers by Amelie Huber
de policy-making. Recognizing the inherent tension for conflict in the use and management of reso... more de policy-making. Recognizing the inherent tension for conflict in the use and management of resources (both natural and social), political ecology examines democratic processes that will allow different opinions to be heard, communicated and negotiated in society, through non-violent and just processes. The Democracy chapter brings forth cases of political ecology research from the Basque Country, Greece, Transylvania, the Indian Himalayas and Southern Vietnam to show how core elements of democracy are often undermined and threatened, even when democracy is proclaimed. The authors depart from identifying processes of depolitization. De-politization is a recurrent theme in many of the cases in this chapter (dam construction, gold-mining, health impacts of water pollution) but also relevant to processes of commodification, dispossession and accumulation, as described in the chapter on 'Commons'. By using the "scientific" mantle and the unquestionable imperative of capitalist economic forces, the injustices that such interventions and decisions produced are being justified. Recognizing some of the pitfalls of representative democracy and identity politics, examples of social movements from the gold-mining resistance in Rosia Montana and from food cooperatives in Bezkaia and Greece bring into light how, through discovering new practices and new identities, solidarities can be formed towards a radical rethinking of democratic participation. Some reading tips The manual has been developed on the basis of cases studies in order to facilitated on one hand the understanding of PE concepts, theories and tools and, on the other hand, to provide readers with tools and examples that could support and inspire other mobilisations. Through the table of contents, readers can access directly one rather than another section or chapter, while in the text, words related to important concepts and information are in bold. Furthermore, each section presents a further readings recommendation box that provide readers with reading suggestions to go more into depth of the issues and theories reviewed in the manual.
The Routledge Companion to Northeast India, Aug 24, 2022
World Development, 2015
Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying o... more Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying objectives of green growth and climate mitigation. Such discursive constructions are reminiscent of a consensual development politics, which contradicts and overlooks long-standing socio-environmental controversies surrounding large dams. Here we argue that anti-political hydropower governance also risks fueling inherent societal antagonisms, with unexpected outcomes. Drawing on qualitative empirical research in Sikkim, Northeast India, we illustrate how attempts by state and private actors to restrict contestation of hydropower projects were countered with unprecedented voice and agency of affected communities, indicating nascent processes of politicization and democratization “from below”.
Water
Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards ... more Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards poses multiple environmental and technological risks. Yet, so far these have received scant attention in hydropower planning processes, and even in the campaigns of most citizen initiatives contesting these dams. Based on qualitative empirical research in Northeast India, this paper explores the reasons why dam safety and hazard potential are often marginal topics in hydropower governance and its contestation. Using a political ecology framework analyzing the production of unequal risks, I argue that a blind-eye to environmental risks facilitates the appropriation of economic benefits by powerful interest groups, while increasing the hazardousness of hydropower infrastructure, accelerating processes of social marginalization. More specifically, this paper brings into analytical focus the role of strategic ignorance and manufactured uncertainty in the production of risk, and explores the ...
Water Conflicts in Northeast India
Narratives of hydropower as straightforward, green and indispensable for socio-economic developme... more Narratives of hydropower as straightforward, green and indispensable for socio-economic development and a low-carbon energy transition are facilitating a boom in the construction of large dams, especially in emerging and developing economies. In spite of the dubious credentials of dams in environmental sustainability, social justice, economic viability and risk and safety, these discourses dominate policy debates and have carried the sector out of a marked recession in the 1990s. A growing number of conflicts and evidence on the profound and troubling socio-ecological transformations caused by this rapid, large-scale expansion of dam construction calls for scrutinizing and problematizing both the policy consensus on sustainable hydropower, and the reasons for its persistence. In this thesis I contribute to this task through a fieldwork-based, political-ecological analysis of hydropower conflicts in the Eastern Himalayan region of India, one of the world’s emerging hydropower hotspot...
Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2016
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
Water, Feb 26, 2019
Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards ... more Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards poses multiple environmental and technological risks. Yet, so far these have received scant attention in hydropower planning processes, and even in the campaigns of most citizen initiatives contesting these dams. Based on qualitative empirical research in Northeast India, this paper explores the reasons why dam safety and hazard potential are often marginal topics in hydropower governance and its contestation. Using a political ecology framework analyzing the production of unequal risks, I argue that a blind-eye to environmental risks facilitates the appropriation of economic benefits by powerful interest groups, while increasing the hazardousness of hydropower infrastructure, accelerating processes of social marginalization. More specifically, this paper brings into analytical focus the role of strategic ignorance and manufactured uncertainty in the production of risk, and explores the challenges and opportunities such knowledge politics create for public resistance against hazardous technologies. I posit that influencing the production of knowledge about risk can create a fertile terrain for contesting hazardous hydropower projects, and for promoting alternative popular conceptions of risk. These findings contribute to an emerging body of research about the implications of hydropower expansionism in the Himalayan hazardscape.
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
KEYWORDS: Political ecology, environmental history, risk, vernacular vs. scientific knowledge, large dams,
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
— Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying... more — Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying objectives of green growth and climate mitigation. Such discursive constructions are reminiscent of a consensual development politics, which contradicts and overlooks long-standing socio-environmental controversies surrounding large dams. Here we argue that anti-political hydropower governance also risks fueling inherent societal antagonisms, with unexpected outcomes. Drawing on qualitative empirical research in Sikkim, Northeast India, we illustrate how attempts by state and private actors to restrict contestation of hydropower projects were countered with unprecedented voice and agency of affected communities, indicating nascent processes of politicization and democratization " from below " .
Books by Amelie Huber
We believe that this publication will be a useful tool for civil society organizations. While th... more We believe that this publication will be a useful tool for civil society
organizations. While there are multiple books on political ecology, all of
them are oriented towards an academic audience, either as introductory
textbooks (Robbins, 2012) or as comprehensive or partial compilations
of state-of-the-art theory and research in the field.
Book chapters by Amelie Huber
Water Conflicts in Northeast India, 2018
Blog posts by Amelie Huber
Europe’s last wild rivers are under threat from dam construction—yet hardly anyone is aware of it.
A handful of anti-dam activists were recently killed in remote Northeast India. A worldwide wave ... more A handful of anti-dam activists were recently killed in remote Northeast India. A worldwide wave of state-mediated violence against anti-hydro protesters also brings up larger questions about these supposedly green and clean ‘development projects’.
de policy-making. Recognizing the inherent tension for conflict in the use and management of reso... more de policy-making. Recognizing the inherent tension for conflict in the use and management of resources (both natural and social), political ecology examines democratic processes that will allow different opinions to be heard, communicated and negotiated in society, through non-violent and just processes. The Democracy chapter brings forth cases of political ecology research from the Basque Country, Greece, Transylvania, the Indian Himalayas and Southern Vietnam to show how core elements of democracy are often undermined and threatened, even when democracy is proclaimed. The authors depart from identifying processes of depolitization. De-politization is a recurrent theme in many of the cases in this chapter (dam construction, gold-mining, health impacts of water pollution) but also relevant to processes of commodification, dispossession and accumulation, as described in the chapter on 'Commons'. By using the "scientific" mantle and the unquestionable imperative of capitalist economic forces, the injustices that such interventions and decisions produced are being justified. Recognizing some of the pitfalls of representative democracy and identity politics, examples of social movements from the gold-mining resistance in Rosia Montana and from food cooperatives in Bezkaia and Greece bring into light how, through discovering new practices and new identities, solidarities can be formed towards a radical rethinking of democratic participation. Some reading tips The manual has been developed on the basis of cases studies in order to facilitated on one hand the understanding of PE concepts, theories and tools and, on the other hand, to provide readers with tools and examples that could support and inspire other mobilisations. Through the table of contents, readers can access directly one rather than another section or chapter, while in the text, words related to important concepts and information are in bold. Furthermore, each section presents a further readings recommendation box that provide readers with reading suggestions to go more into depth of the issues and theories reviewed in the manual.
The Routledge Companion to Northeast India, Aug 24, 2022
World Development, 2015
Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying o... more Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying objectives of green growth and climate mitigation. Such discursive constructions are reminiscent of a consensual development politics, which contradicts and overlooks long-standing socio-environmental controversies surrounding large dams. Here we argue that anti-political hydropower governance also risks fueling inherent societal antagonisms, with unexpected outcomes. Drawing on qualitative empirical research in Sikkim, Northeast India, we illustrate how attempts by state and private actors to restrict contestation of hydropower projects were countered with unprecedented voice and agency of affected communities, indicating nascent processes of politicization and democratization “from below”.
Water
Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards ... more Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards poses multiple environmental and technological risks. Yet, so far these have received scant attention in hydropower planning processes, and even in the campaigns of most citizen initiatives contesting these dams. Based on qualitative empirical research in Northeast India, this paper explores the reasons why dam safety and hazard potential are often marginal topics in hydropower governance and its contestation. Using a political ecology framework analyzing the production of unequal risks, I argue that a blind-eye to environmental risks facilitates the appropriation of economic benefits by powerful interest groups, while increasing the hazardousness of hydropower infrastructure, accelerating processes of social marginalization. More specifically, this paper brings into analytical focus the role of strategic ignorance and manufactured uncertainty in the production of risk, and explores the ...
Water Conflicts in Northeast India
Narratives of hydropower as straightforward, green and indispensable for socio-economic developme... more Narratives of hydropower as straightforward, green and indispensable for socio-economic development and a low-carbon energy transition are facilitating a boom in the construction of large dams, especially in emerging and developing economies. In spite of the dubious credentials of dams in environmental sustainability, social justice, economic viability and risk and safety, these discourses dominate policy debates and have carried the sector out of a marked recession in the 1990s. A growing number of conflicts and evidence on the profound and troubling socio-ecological transformations caused by this rapid, large-scale expansion of dam construction calls for scrutinizing and problematizing both the policy consensus on sustainable hydropower, and the reasons for its persistence. In this thesis I contribute to this task through a fieldwork-based, political-ecological analysis of hydropower conflicts in the Eastern Himalayan region of India, one of the world’s emerging hydropower hotspot...
Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2016
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
Water, Feb 26, 2019
Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards ... more Rapidly expanding hydropower development in areas prone to geological and hydro-climatic hazards poses multiple environmental and technological risks. Yet, so far these have received scant attention in hydropower planning processes, and even in the campaigns of most citizen initiatives contesting these dams. Based on qualitative empirical research in Northeast India, this paper explores the reasons why dam safety and hazard potential are often marginal topics in hydropower governance and its contestation. Using a political ecology framework analyzing the production of unequal risks, I argue that a blind-eye to environmental risks facilitates the appropriation of economic benefits by powerful interest groups, while increasing the hazardousness of hydropower infrastructure, accelerating processes of social marginalization. More specifically, this paper brings into analytical focus the role of strategic ignorance and manufactured uncertainty in the production of risk, and explores the challenges and opportunities such knowledge politics create for public resistance against hazardous technologies. I posit that influencing the production of knowledge about risk can create a fertile terrain for contesting hazardous hydropower projects, and for promoting alternative popular conceptions of risk. These findings contribute to an emerging body of research about the implications of hydropower expansionism in the Himalayan hazardscape.
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
KEYWORDS: Political ecology, environmental history, risk, vernacular vs. scientific knowledge, large dams,
Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations... more Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.
— Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying... more — Hydropower has lately been advocated by a multi-scalar public–private policy nexus for marrying objectives of green growth and climate mitigation. Such discursive constructions are reminiscent of a consensual development politics, which contradicts and overlooks long-standing socio-environmental controversies surrounding large dams. Here we argue that anti-political hydropower governance also risks fueling inherent societal antagonisms, with unexpected outcomes. Drawing on qualitative empirical research in Sikkim, Northeast India, we illustrate how attempts by state and private actors to restrict contestation of hydropower projects were countered with unprecedented voice and agency of affected communities, indicating nascent processes of politicization and democratization " from below " .
We believe that this publication will be a useful tool for civil society organizations. While th... more We believe that this publication will be a useful tool for civil society
organizations. While there are multiple books on political ecology, all of
them are oriented towards an academic audience, either as introductory
textbooks (Robbins, 2012) or as comprehensive or partial compilations
of state-of-the-art theory and research in the field.
Europe’s last wild rivers are under threat from dam construction—yet hardly anyone is aware of it.
A handful of anti-dam activists were recently killed in remote Northeast India. A worldwide wave ... more A handful of anti-dam activists were recently killed in remote Northeast India. A worldwide wave of state-mediated violence against anti-hydro protesters also brings up larger questions about these supposedly green and clean ‘development projects’.