Hydropower and the production of space: Competing territories of the Tapajós river, Brazil

Keywords: Hydropower, Territorialisation, Lefebvre, Brazil, São Luiz do Tapajós, Energy transitions
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Wednesday
Session Start / End Time: 4/7/2021 03:05 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/7/2021 04:20 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 40

Abstract

In an atmosphere of climate change mitigation and the need for increased, reliable energy access, hydropower has experienced a renaissance. However, this has often been accompanied by episodes of violence, displacement and land- and water-grabbing. This paper draws on the work of Henri Lefebvre to conceptualise the ways that hydroelectric projects represent the (re)production of hydro-social territories – and how these new conceptualisations of space are contested.

This paper focuses on the planning and eventual cancellation of one particular dam - the São Luiz do Tapajós dam project in Brazil. It explores how this project represented the enrolment of lived space of a state energy politics characterised by patterns of uneven development and sacrifice zones. A key part of this process is that of flattening, in which the planning and impact assessment of pro-dam actors render lived space abstract, stripping away the spaces and places that local communities call home. However, this process is contested by local communities. The paper explores how, in this case, the local Munduruku community adopted process of mapping and self-demarcation to assert their rights to – and occupation – of the space to be inundated. In doing so, they rendered visible the waterscape as a lived space. It is by drawing attention to this contested production of space that this paper illuminates an important case study of conflicting hydro-social territorialisations and how any call for a just transition must account for the ways in which ‘green’ energy infrastructure transforms old and produces new geographies.