Download or read book Mega Dams in World Literature written by Margaret Ziolkowski and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mega-Dams in World Literature reveals the varied effects of large dams on people and their environments as expressed in literary works, focusing on the shifting attitudes toward large dams that emerged over the course of the twentieth century. Margaret Ziolkowski covers the enthusiasm for large-dam construction that took place during the mid-twentieth-century heyday of mega-dams, the increasing number of people displaced by dams, the troubling environmental effects they incur, and the types of destruction and protest to which they may be subject. Using North American, Native American, Russian, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese novels and poems, Ziolkowski explores the supposed progress that these structures bring. The book asks how the human urge to exploit and control waterways has affected our relationships to nature and the environment and argues that the high modernism of the twentieth century, along with its preoccupation with development, casts the hydroelectric dam as a central symbol of domination over nature and the power of the nation state. Beyond examining the exultation of large dams as symbols of progress, Mega-Dams in World Literature takes a broad international and cultural approach that humanizes and personalizes the major issues associated with large dams through nuanced analyses, paying particular attention to issues engendered by high modernism and settler colonialism. Both general and specialist readers interested in human-environment relationships will enjoy this prescient book.
Download or read book Dams and Development written by Sanjeev Khagram and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big dams built for irrigation, power, water supply, and other purposes were among the most potent symbols of economic development for much of the twentieth century. Of late they have become a lightning rod for challenges to this vision of development as something planned by elites with scant regard for environmental and social consequences—especially for the populations that are displaced as their homelands are flooded. In this book, Sanjeev Khagram traces changes in our ideas of what constitutes appropriate development through the shifting transnational dynamics of big dam construction. Khagram tells the story of a growing, but contentious, world society that features novel and increasingly efficacious norms of appropriate behavior in such areas as human rights and environmental protection. The transnational coalitions and networks led by nongovernmental groups that espouse such norms may seem weak in comparison with states, corporations, and such international agencies as the World Bank. Yet they became progressively more effective at altering the policies and practices of these historically more powerful actors and organizations from the 1970s on. Khagram develops these claims in a detailed ethnographic account of the transnational struggles around the Narmada River Valley Dam Projects in central India, a huge complex of thirty large and more than three thousand small dams. He offers further substantiation through a comparative historical analysis of the political economy of big dam projects in India, Brazil, South Africa, and China as well as by examining the changing behavior of international agencies and global companies. The author concludes with a discussion of the World Commission on Dams, an innovative attempt in the late 1990s to generate new norms among conflicting stakeholders.
Download or read book Silenced Rivers written by Patrick McCully and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2001-10-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entirely updated in the light of the recent World Commission on Dams Report, and responding to it, this new edition of Patrick McCully's now classic study shows why large dams have become such a controversial technology in both industrialized and developing countries. The book explains the history and politics of dam building worldwide and shows why large dams have become so controversial. It details the ecological and human impacts of large dams, and shows how the 'national interest' argument is used to legitimize uneconomic and unjust projects which benefit elites while impoverishing tens of millions, describes the technical, safety and economic problems of dam technology, the structure of the international dam-building industry, and the role played by international banks and aid agencies. It tells the story of the rapid growth of the international anti-dam movement, and recounts some of the most important anti-dam campaigns around the world. McCully shows how the dam lobby and governments have reacted to criticism by cosmetic 'greening' of the dam-building process, and through state repression outlines the alternatives to dams, and argues that their replacement by less destructive alternatives requires the opening up of the industry's practices to public scrutiny.
Download or read book The Work of World Literature written by Francesco Giusti and published by ICI Berlin Press. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contentious discourse around world literature tends to stress the ‘world’ in the phrase. This volume, in contrast, asks what it means to approach world literature by inflecting the question of the literary. Debates for, against, and around ‘world literature’ have brought renewed attention to the worldly aspects of the literary enterprise. Literature is studied with regard to its sociopolitical and cultural references, contexts and conditions of production, circulation, distribution, and translation. But what becomes of the literary when one speaks of world literature? Responding to Derek Attridge’s theory of how literature ‘works’, the contributions in this volume explore in diverse ways and with attention to a variety of literary practices what it might mean to speak of ‘the work of world literature’. The volume shows how attention to literariness complicates the ethical and political conundrums at the centre of debates about world literature.
Download or read book Contested Knowledges written by Esha Shah and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Locally and globally, mega-hydraulic projects have become deeply controversial. Recently, despite widespread critique, they have regained a new impetus worldwide. The developmentand operation of large dams and mega-hydraulic infrastructure projects are manifestations of contested knowledge regimes. In this special issue we present, analyze and critically engage with situations where multiple knowledge regimes interact and conflict with each other, and where different grounds for claiming the truth are used to construct hydrosocial realities. In this introductory paper, we outline the conceptual groundwork. We discuss ‘the dark legend of UnGovernance’ as an epistemological mainstay underlying the mega-hydraulic knowledge regimes, involving a deep, often subconscious, neglect of the multiplicity of hydrosocial territories and water cultures. Accordingly, modernist epistemic regimes tend to subjugate other knowledge systems and dichotomize ‘civilized Self’ versus ‘backward Other’; they depend upon depersonalized planning models that manufacture ignorance. Romanticizing and reifying the ‘othered’ hydrosocial territories and vernacular / indigenous knowledge, however, may pose a serious danger to dam-affected communities. Instead, we show how multiple forms of power challenge mega-hydraulic rationality thereby repoliticizing large dam regimes. This happens often through complex, multi-actor, multi-scalar coalitions that make that knowledge is co-created in informal arenas and battlefields.
Download or read book Living in the Shadow of the Large Dams written by Dzodzi Tsikata and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006-05-01 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book on dam-affected communities of the Volta River Project breaks with the mould and tackles the question of long term environmental and socio-economic impacts and responses of two often neglected groups of communities- the downstream and lakeside communities.
Download or read book Hydropolitics written by Christine Folch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the people and institutions connected with the Itaipoe Dam, the world's biggest producer of renewable energy, Hydropolitics is a groundbreaking investigation of the world's largest power plant and the ways energy shapes politics and economics.ics.
Download or read book Dams and Development in China written by Bryan Tilt and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China is home to half of the world's large dams and adds dozens more each year. The benefits are considerable: dams deliver hydropower, provide reliable irrigation water, protect people and farmland against flooding, and produce hydroelectricity in a nation with a seeimingly insatiable appetite for energy. As hydropower responds to a larger share of energy demand, dams may also help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, welcome news in a country where air and water pollution have become dire and greenhouse gas emissions are the highest in the world. Yet the advantages of dams come at a high cost for river ecosystems and for the social and economic well-being of local people, who face displacement and farmland loss. This book examines the array of water-management decisions faced by Chinese leaders and their consequences for local communities. Focusing on the southwestern province of Yunnan—a major hub for hydropower development in China—which encompasses one of the world's most biodiverse temperate ecosystems and one of China's most ethnically and culturally rich regions, Bryan Tilt takes the reader from the halls of decision-making power in Beijing to Yunnan's rural villages. In the process, he examines the contrasting values of government agencies, hydropower corporations, NGOs, and local communities and explores how these values are linked to longstanding cultural norms about what is right, proper, and just. He also considers the various strategies these groups use to influence water-resource policy, including advocacy, petitioning, and public protest. Drawing on a decade of research, he offers his insights on whether the world's most populous nation will adopt greater transparency, increased scientific collaboration, and broader public participation as it continues to grow economically.
Download or read book Impacts of Large Dams A Global Assessment written by Cecilia Tortajada and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most controversial issues of the water sector in recent years has been the impacts of large dams. Proponents have claimed that such structures are essential to meet the increasing water demands of the world and that their overall societal benefits far outweight the costs. In contrast, the opponents claim that social and environmental costs of large dams far exceed their benefits, and that the era of construction of large dams is over. A major reason as to why there is no consensus on the overall benefits of large dams is because objective, authoritative and comprehensive evaluations of their impacts, especially ten or more years after their construction, are conspicuous by their absence. This book debates impartially, comprehensively and objectively, the positive and negative impacts of large dams based on facts, figures and authoritative analyses. These in-depth case studies are expected to promote a healthy and balanced debate on the needs, impacts and relevance of large dams, with case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America.
Download or read book Concrete Revolution written by Christopher Sneddon and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water may seem innocuous, but as a universal necessity, it inevitably intersects with politics when it comes to acquisition, control, and associated technologies. While we know a great deal about the socioecological costs and benefits of modern dams, we know far less about their political origins and ramifications. In Concrete Revolution, Christopher Sneddon offers a corrective: a compelling historical account of the US Bureau of Reclamation’s contributions to dam technology, Cold War politics, and the social and environmental adversity perpetuated by the US government in its pursuit of economic growth and geopolitical power. Founded in 1902, the Bureau became enmeshed in the US State Department’s push for geopolitical power following World War II, a response to the Soviet Union’s increasing global sway. By offering technical and water resource management advice to the world’s underdeveloped regions, the Bureau found that it could not only provide them with economic assistance and the United States with investment opportunities, but also forge alliances and shore up a country’s global standing in the face of burgeoning communist influence. Drawing on a number of international case studies—from the Bureau’s early forays into overseas development and the launch of its Foreign Activities Office in 1950 to the Blue Nile investigation in Ethiopia—Concrete Revolution offers insights into this historic damming boom, with vital implications for the present. If, Sneddon argues, we can understand dams as both technical and political objects rather than instruments of impartial science, we can better participate in current debates about large dams and river basin planning.
Download or read book Twenty Seventh International Congress on Large Dams Vingt Septi me Congr s International des Grands Barrages written by ICOLD CIGB and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-05-25 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) held its 27th International Congress in Marseille, France (12-19 November 2021). The proceedings of the congress focus on four main questions: 1. Reservoir sedimentation and sustainable development; 2. Safety and risk analysis; 3. Geology and dams, and 4. Small dams and levees. The book thoroughly discusses these questions and is indispensable for academics, engineers and professionals involved or interested in engineering, hydraulic engineering and related disciplines.
Download or read book Large Dams in Asia written by Marcus Nüsser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-18 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the multi-dimensional asymmetries of scale, time, and directions in the large dam controversy with a regional focus on Asia, especially on India and China. Whereas the concept of large-scale transformation of fluvial environments into technological hydroscapes originated in the West, widespread construction of large dams started in the countries of the Global South in the period after decolonisation. Construction and operation of large dams are amongst the most prestigious but also most sensitive development issues, often accompanied by massive resistance of adversely affected people and civil society organisations. Based on the notion of a contested politicised environment, various case studies are analysed to identify the dominant narratives and imaginations that shape the large dams debate. This volume largely contains contributions related to several subprojects from within the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows’, based at Heidelberg University, with several expert contributions from external researchers.
Download or read book Non conventional Construction of Concrete Dams and Rock Foundations written by Yu A. Landau and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dealing with dam types such as gravity, counterfort and arch, this guide examines construction techniques, their development over the years, and their merits and demerits. As well as providing citations of dams, patents and codes, the text presents comparative data on world dams, updated to 1991.
Download or read book Renewable Energy Small Hydro written by C.V.J. Varma and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of conference papers on small hydro renewable energy, covering such topics as: resource assessment and planning; design and construction; and plant and equipment.
Download or read book Texts And Their Worlds I Literature Of India An Introduction written by Anna Kurian and published by Foundation Books. This book was released on 2006-10-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Texts and Their Worlds I (Literatures of India: An Introduction) attempts to introduce students to literatures of India. The selections provide a sampling of diverse texts which open windows into the worlds in which they were created. They bid the reader to think, to understand, and most importantly, to deploy those ideas beyond the classroom. The book integrates Indian writing in English with Indian literatures written in English in India alongside all other literatures produced in India, providing tremendous scope for discussions of commonalities and differences. Key features - A brief introduction to each author and his/her popular works - A critical write-up on each literary piece to prepare students to read the full text - A glossary of words and phrases to facilitate proficiency in reading - Discussion questions to encourage literary and critical analysis
Download or read book The Global Casino An Introduction to Environmental Issues Fourth Edition written by Nick Middleton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: he Global Casino is a compelling introduction to environmental issues which links the physical environment to its political, social and economic contexts. Case studies from around the globe are used to illustrate key environmental issues, from global warming and deforestation to natural hazards and soil erosion. The book highlights the underlying causes behind environmental problems, including human actions and emphasises the potential for solutions. In line with contemporary international trends, emphasis is placed on the critical concept of sustainable development. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated, with the introduction of new illustrative material and up-to-the-minute case studies on topics such as endangered deep-sea species, the global uptake of unleaded petrol, geothermal energy in Iceland, genocide in Rwanda and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Particularly useful features for students include points for discussion at the end of each chapter as well as a comprehensive glossary. The lists of key readings and websites, again linked specifically to the content of each chapter, have been fully updated and expanded. The Global Casino is the essential course companion for students of the environment, geography, earth sciences and development studies.
Download or read book Dams Displacement and the Delusion of Development written by Allen F. Isaacman and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world’s fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam—from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. “The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa.” (Richard Roberts) This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam’s shadow.
