Article ID: CBB001250763

From Hydroimperialism to Hydrocapitalism: “French” Hydraulics in France, North Africa, and Beyond (2012)

unapi

Pritchard, Sara B. (Author)


Social Studies of Science
Volume: 42
Pages: 591--615


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: “Water Worlds”
Language: English

This article examines hydroimperialism and the subsequent emergence of hydrocapitalism in 19th- and 20th-century France and beyond. As the terms themselves suggest, both forms of `hydropower' illustrate the fundamental connection between water, its management, and colonial or neocolonial relations in the modern era. The article develops the concepts of hydroimperialism and hydrocapitalism both historically and analytically. It examines some of the historical processes that fostered and shaped French hydroimperialism during the colonial era, with French North Africa serving as the empirical example. It also explores how French political and technical elites basically advocated hydroimperialism, often from France to its North African empire, but also from the colonies to the metropole. Obscuring these earlier mobilities and exchanges, French water specialists in the late 20th century have pushed for the export of their hydraulic expertise `globally'. Finally, although this study of hydroimperialism and hydrocapitalism is based on historical sources and methods, and their particular forms are thus situated in France, French North Africa, and parts of the global South, these concepts are analytically flexible. They facilitate historical comparisons while also helping to theorize the mutual constitution of science and technology, environmental management, and power in the modern world.

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Article Carroll, Patrick (2012) Water and Technoscientific State Formation in California. Social Studies of Science (p. 489). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001250763/

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Authors & Contributors
Kusiak, Pauline Marie
Keller, Richard Charles
Éric Gobe
Guba, David A., Jr.
Isacar Bolaños
Swyngedouw, Erik
Concepts
Colonialism
France, colonies
Technology and politics
Imperialism
Water resource management
Water
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Enlightenment
Places
France
North Africa
Algeria
Africa
South Africa
Egypt
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