Dams And Development In China

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Dams and Development in China

Author : Bryan Tilt
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023153826X
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams and Development in China by : Bryan Tilt

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.

Dams and Development

Author : Sanjeev Khagram
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501727397
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams and Development by : Sanjeev Khagram

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.

Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia

Author : Giuseppina Siciliano
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315440024
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia by : Giuseppina Siciliano

Download or read book Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia written by Giuseppina Siciliano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-17 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, both Chinese overseas investment and hydropower development have been topics of increasing interest and research, with Chinese actors acting as financiers, developers, builders and sub-contractors. Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia explores the governance and socio-economic implications of large Chinese dams’ development in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa and asks how these big infrastructure projects promote sustainable local and national development in the recipient countries. The book first discusses general aspects of Chinese involvement in hydropower development in Africa and Asia, looking at political and economic aspects, before presenting selected case studies from large dams built and financed by Chinese actors in Asia and Africa. Based on these results, the book further makes recommendations on how to improve the planning, implementation and governance of large dams for sustainable global dam-building. This volume is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and scholars in the areas of Development, Environmental Studies, Politics and Economics.

The Large Dam Dilemma

Author : Pu Wang
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400776306
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis The Large Dam Dilemma by : Pu Wang

Download or read book The Large Dam Dilemma written by Pu Wang and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large dam construction has significant environmental and social impacts at different scales. As the largest developing country in the world, China has built about half of the world’s large dams, and more are expected to be built over the next two decades to meet the country’s rapidly growing demand for energy. This book summarizes and updates information about the history, distribution, functions, and impacts of large dams, both globally and at China’s national level. It then addresses the environmental and social-economic impacts of large dams in China with particular emphasis on the impacts of large dams on relocated people and associated compensation policies. Lastly, it introduces an integrated ecological and socio-economic study conducted in areas affected by dams along the Upper Mekong River, China. This book has the following three goals. The first goal is to summarize and update information on large dams globally and at China’s national level (Ch. 2). We examine large dam problems from different perspectives, ranging from their spatial and temporal distributions and their environmental and social impacts, to discussions and debates centered on them. We also incorporate the results of an empirical investigation of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of large dams on the Upper Mekong River, China, and draw conclusions out of the analysis (Chs.3 & 4). Our second goal is to provide an analysis framework to help understand the environmental and social-economic impacts of dam construction and the resulting environmental degradations and social inequities at different scales (Chs.3 & 4), as well as to offer recommendations for mitigating these impacts within China’s socio-political context (Ch. 5). The significant environmental effects resulting from dam construction include damage to ecological integrity and loss of biological diversity. The most significant social consequences brought by dam projects are their negative impacts on relocated people. Our analysis framework provides approaches to help comprehensively understand these impacts. Our third goal is to provide clues and suggestions for further studies of large dam problems both globally and in China (Ch. 5). The construction of large dams is proceeding rapidly in different parts of the world despite the heated debates on whether they should be built at all. The decision-making process related to building large dams involves considerations of economic viability, environmental sustainability, and social equity. Therefore, interdisciplinary collaborations are required in large dam research and development projects in order to reconcile the interests of different stakeholders and avoid harming ecosystems, biodiversity, and human welfare. Overall, we hope our book facilitates future examinations of large dams by providing summaries of existing data and research related to large dams, and offering a framework for better understanding and analyzing their environmental and social impacts.

Dams and Development

Author : World Commission on Dams
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134897987
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams and Development by : World Commission on Dams

Download or read book Dams and Development written by World Commission on Dams and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the year 2000, the world had built more than 45,000 large dams to irrigate crops, generate power, control floods in wet times and store water in dry times. Yet, in the last century, large dams also disrupted the ecology of half the world's rivers, displaced tens of millions of people from their homes and left nations burdened with debt. Their impacts have inevitably generated growing controversy and conflicts. Resolving their role in meeting water and energy needs is vital for the future and illustrates the complex development challenges that face our societies. The Report of the World Commission on Dams: - is the product of an unprecedented global public policy effort to bring governments, the private sector and civil society together in one process - provides the first comprehensive global and independent review of the performance and impacts of dams - presents a new framework for water and energy resources development - develops an agenda of seven strategic priorities with corresponding criteria and guidelines for future decision-making. Challenging our assumptions, the Commission sets before us the hard, rigorous and clear-eyed evidence of exactly why nations decide to build dams and how dams can affect human, plant and animal life, for better or for worse. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making is vital reading on the future of dams as well as the changing development context where new voices, choices and options leave little room for a business-as-usual scenario.

Dams and Development

Author : World Commission on Dams
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134898053
Total Pages : 834 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams and Development by : World Commission on Dams

Download or read book Dams and Development written by World Commission on Dams and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the year 2000, the world had built more than 45,000 large dams to irrigate crops, generate power, control floods in wet times and store water in dry times. Yet, in the last century, large dams also disrupted the ecology of half the world's rivers, displaced tens of millions of people from their homes and left nations burdened with debt. Their impacts have inevitably generated growing controversy and conflicts. Resolving their role in meeting water and energy needs is vital for the future and illustrates the complex development challenges that face our societies. The Report of the World Commission on Dams: - is the product of an unprecedented global public policy effort to bring governments, the private sector and civil society together in one process - provides the first comprehensive global and independent review of the performance and impacts of dams - presents a new framework for water and energy resources development - develops an agenda of seven strategic priorities with corresponding criteria and guidelines for future decision-making. Challenging our assumptions, the Commission sets before us the hard, rigorous and clear-eyed evidence of exactly why nations decide to build dams and how dams can affect human, plant and animal life, for better or for worse. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making is vital reading on the future of dams as well as the changing development context where new voices, choices and options leave little room for a business-as-usual scenario.

Dams, Migration and Authoritarianism in China

Author : Sabrina Habich
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317388763
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams, Migration and Authoritarianism in China by : Sabrina Habich

Download or read book Dams, Migration and Authoritarianism in China written by Sabrina Habich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Past studies on the Chinese state point towards the inherent adaptability, effectiveness and overall stability of authoritarian rule in China. The key question addressed here is how this adaptive capacity plays out at the local level in China, clarifying the extent to which local state actors are able to shape local processes of policy implementation. This book studies the evolution of dam-induced resettlement policy in China, based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Yunnan province. It shows that local governments at the lowest administrative levels are caught in a double bind, facing strong top-down pressures in the important policy field of hydropower development, while simultaneously having to handle growing social pressure from local communities affected by resettlement policies. In doing so, the book questions the widespread assumption that the observed longevity and resilience of China’s authoritarian regime is to a large extent due to the high degree of flexibility that has been granted to local governments in the course of the reform period. The research extends beyond previous analyses of policy implementation by focusing on the state, on society and the ways in which they interact, as well as by examining what happens when policy implementation is interrupted. Analysing the application of resettlement policies in contemporary China, with a focus on the multiple constraints that Chinese local states face, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Political Science, Chinese Studies and Sociology.

New Developments in Dam Engineering

Author : Martin Wieland
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 9780203020678
Total Pages : 1248 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis New Developments in Dam Engineering by : Martin Wieland

Download or read book New Developments in Dam Engineering written by Martin Wieland and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 1248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of water resources is a key element in the socio-economic development of many regions in the world. Water availability and rainfall are unequally distributed both in space and time, so dams play a vital role, there being few viable alternatives for storing water. Dams hold a prime place in satisfying the ever-increasing demand for power, irrigation and drinking water, for protection of man, property and environment from catastrophic floods, and for regulating the flow of rivers. Dams have contributed to the development of civilization for over 2,000 years. Worldwide there are some 45,000 large dams listed by ICOLD, which have a height over 15 meters. Today, in western countries, where most of the water resources have been developed, the safety of the existing dams and measures for extending their economical life are of prime concern. In developing countries the focus is on the construction of new dams. The proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Dam Engineering includes contributions from 18 countries, and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in hydropower development, new type dams, new materials and new technologies, dam and environment. Traditional areas, such as concrete dams and embankment dams, methods of analysis and design of dams, dam foundation, seismic analysis, design and safety, stability of dam and slope, dam safety monitoring and instrumentation, dam maintenance, and rehabilitation and heightening are also considered. The book is of special interest to scientists, researchers, engineers, and students working in dam engineering, dam design, hydropower development, environmental engineering, and structural hydraulics.

Dams and Development

Author : United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Environmental Policy Implementation. Dams and Development Project
Publisher : UNEP/Earthprint
ISBN 13 : 9789280728163
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (281 download)

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Book Synopsis Dams and Development by : United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Environmental Policy Implementation. Dams and Development Project

Download or read book Dams and Development written by United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Environmental Policy Implementation. Dams and Development Project and published by UNEP/Earthprint. This book was released on 2007 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a compilation of relevant practices of dealing with environmental and social issues during the planning, design and management of dams. The Compendium covers 9 topics selected by the multistakeholder Dams and Development Forum. It discusses the state of the art regarding dealing with the topics around the world. It shows how they are captured by regulatory frameworks and provides a number of examples illustrating how they have been implemented on the ground.--Publisher's description.

Development-Induced Displacement in India and China

Author : Florence Padovani
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498529046
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Development-Induced Displacement in India and China by : Florence Padovani

Download or read book Development-Induced Displacement in India and China written by Florence Padovani and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world seems to have recently discovered India and China as major players in Asia, and political and economic connections between the two countries are rapidly growing. Beyond the fashionable phenomenon, the two countries have much in common and many shared experiences. Both are developing countries with dynamic economies focused on lifting their people out of poverty. There are also differences as well, as India is a democracy while China is an autocratic state, and the speed of economic growth is much higher in India. This collection provides a comparative analysis of development-induced migration in India and China caused by urbanization and dam construction. The contributors include scholars from both countries working in both academia and consultancy positions.

Fixing Landscape

Author : Corey Byrnes
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231547129
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Fixing Landscape by : Corey Byrnes

Download or read book Fixing Landscape written by Corey Byrnes and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1994, workers broke ground on China’s Three Gorges Dam. By its completion in 2012, the dam had transformed the ecology of the Yangzi River, displaced over a million people, and forever altered a landscape immortalized in centuries of literature and art. The controversial history of the dam is well known; what this book uncovers are its unexpected connections to the cultural traditions it seems to sever. By reconsidering the dam in relation to the aesthetic history of the Three Gorges region over more than two millennia, Fixing Landscape offers radically new ways of thinking about cultural and spatial production in contemporary China. Corey Byrnes argues that this monumental feat of engineering can only be understood by confronting its status as a techno-poetic act, a form of landscaping indebted to both the technical knowledge of engineers and to the poetic legacies of the Gorges as cultural site. Synthesizing methods drawn from premodern, modern, and contemporary Chinese studies, as well as from critical geography, art history, and the environmental humanities, Byrnes offers innovative readings of eighth-century poetry, paintings from the twelfth through twenty-first centuries, contemporary film, nineteenth-century British travelogues, and Chinese and Western maps, among other sources. Fixing Landscape shows that premodern poetry and visual art have something urgent to tell us about a contemporary experiment in spatial production. Poems and paintings may not build dams, but Byrnes argues that the Three Gorges Dam would not exist as we know it without them.

The River Dragon Has Come!

Author : John Thibodeau
Publisher : M.E. Sharpe
ISBN 13 : 9780765602053
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The River Dragon Has Come! by : John Thibodeau

Download or read book The River Dragon Has Come! written by John Thibodeau and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 1998 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents essays and field reports assessing the impact of the Three Gorges dam now under construction at Sandouping in China's Hubei Province, revealing deep-rooted problems with the project that the government is attempting to suppress. Opponents of the dam discuss issues including safety, population resettlement, environment and economic impact, loss of cultural antiquities, military considerations, and lessons learned from dam disasters of the past. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

China's International Transboundary Rivers

Author : Lei Xie
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134973861
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis China's International Transboundary Rivers by : Lei Xie

Download or read book China's International Transboundary Rivers written by Lei Xie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-06 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China has forty major transboundary watercourses with neighbouring countries, and has frequently been accused of harming its downstream neighbours through its domestic water management policies, such as the construction of dams for hydropower. This book provides an understanding of water security in Asia by investigating how shared water resources affect China’s relationships with neighbouring countries in South, East, Southeast and Central Asia. Since China is an upstream state on most of its shared transboundary rivers, the country’s international water policy is at the core of Asia’s water security. These water disputes have had strong implications for China’s interstate relations, and also influenced its international water policy alongside domestic concerns over water resource management. This book investigates China’s policy responses to domestic water crises and examines China’s international water policy as well as its strategy in dealing with international cooperation. The authors describe the key elements of water diplomacy in Asia which demonstrate varying degrees of effectiveness of environmental agreements. It shows how China has established various institutional arrangements with neighbouring countries, primarily in the form of bilateral agreements over hydrological data exchange. Detailed case studies are included of the Mekong, Brahmaputra, Ili and Amur rivers.

China and Transboundary Water Politics in Asia

Author : Hongzhou Zhang
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135166980X
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis China and Transboundary Water Politics in Asia by : Hongzhou Zhang

Download or read book China and Transboundary Water Politics in Asia written by Hongzhou Zhang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water-related conflicts have a long history and will continue to be a global and regional problem. Asia, with 1.5 billion of its people living in shared river basins, and with very few transboundary rivers governed by treaties, is especially prone to such conflicts. The key to mitigating transboundary water conflicts and advancing cooperation in Asia is largely in the hands of China, the upstream country for most of Asia’s major transboundary rivers. To avert the looming water crisis, apart from spending billions of dollars on domestic water transfer projects such as the South–North Water Diversion Megaproject, as well as on water conservancy and pollution abatement, China has sought to utilize the water resources of the major rivers that run across borders with neighbouring countries. On these transboundary rivers, China has built or plans to build large dams for hydroelectricity and major water diversion facilities, which has triggered anxiety and complaints from downstream countries and criticism from the international society. This book aims to systematically examine the complex reality of water contestations between China and its neighbouring countries. It provides a discussion on transboundary hydropolitics beyond the state-centric geopolitical perspective to dig into various political, institutional, legal, historical, geographical, and demographic factors that affect China’s policies and practices towards transboundary water issues. This book also provides a collection of comparative case studies on China’s water resources management on the Mekong River with other five riparian states in the Lower Mekong region: the Salween River with Myanmar, the Brahmaputra River with India, the Amur River with Russia and Mongolia, the Illy and Irtysh Rivers with Kazakhstann, and the Yalu and Tumen Rivers with North Korea. Furthermore, this book sheds light on China’s future role in global water governance.

The Future of Large Dams

Author : Thayer Ted Scudder
Publisher : Earthscan
ISBN 13 : 1849773904
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (497 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of Large Dams by : Thayer Ted Scudder

Download or read book The Future of Large Dams written by Thayer Ted Scudder and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2012 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Viewed by some as symbols of progress and by others as inherently flawed, large dams remain one of the most contentious development issues on Earth. Building on the work of the now defunct World Commission on Dams, Thayer Scudder wades into the debate with unprecedented authority.Employing the Commission's Seven Strategic priorities, Scudder charts the 'middle way' forward by examining the impacts of large dams on ecosystems, societies and political economies. He also analyses the structure of the decision-making process for water resource development and tackles the highly contentious issue of dam-induced resettlement, illuminated by a statistical analysis of 50 cases.

Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River

Author : Carl Middleton
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319774409
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River by : Carl Middleton

Download or read book Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River written by Carl Middleton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-12 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book focuses on the Salween River, shared by China, Myanmar, and Thailand, that is increasingly at the heart of pressing regional development debates. The basin supports the livelihoods of over 10 million people, and within it there is great socio-economic, cultural and political diversity. The basin is witnessing intensifying dynamics of resource extraction, alongside large dam construction, conservation and development intervention, that is unfolding within a complex terrain of local, national and transnational governance. With a focus on the contested politics of water and associated resources in the Salween basin, this book offers a collection of empirical case studies that highlights local knowledge and perspectives. Given the paucity of grounded social science studies in this contested basin, this book provides conceptual insights at the intersection of resource governance, development, and politics of knowledge relevant to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners at a time when rapid change is underway. - Fills a significant knowledge gap on a major river in Southeast Asia, with empirical and conceptual contributions - Inter-disciplinary perspective and by a range of writers, including academics, policy-makers and civil society researchers, the majority from within Southeast Asia - New policy insights on a river at the cross-roads of a major political and development transition

Concrete Revolution

Author : Christopher Sneddon
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022628445X
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Concrete Revolution by : Christopher Sneddon

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.