Ontological politics of hydrosocial territories in the Salween River basin, Myanmar/Burma
Source: Academia
Taking the Salween River in Myanmar as a case study, this paper draws on a growing body of hydrosocial literature to analyze the multiple ontologies of water taking each ontology to be constituted of-and enacted within-a human-more-than-human assemblage, the spatiotemporal dimensions of which demar-cate a 'hydrosocial territory.'
This paper presents three illustrations, namely:
- the role of the Union Government's National Water Resources Committee and how it manifests and is situated within an ontology of 'modern Water';
- a Karen indigenous initiative to establish a Salween Peace Park and an associated revealing of an 'indigenous' ontology; and
- plans for the construction of mainstream hydropower dams and electricity export to neighboring Thailand, where different water ontologies and their hydrosocial territories collide.