Infrastructure Lives: Water, Territories and Transformations in Turkey, Peru and Spain

This dissertation departs from questions about territorialization processes associated with modern hydraulic infrastructure. It asks about which visions and imaginaries form the basis and foundation for hydraulic infrastructure construction and removal, and how these imaginaries change through time; how hydraulic infrastructure is a powerful tool to materialize specific imaginaries in expected and unexpected ways; and what effects this brings about for adjacent hydrosocial territories. The central research question is: How have contested imaginaries shaped hydraulic infrastructure projects and, in consequence, (re)configured hydrosocial territories in Turkey, Peru and Spain? In order to do so, this research gives analytically deep ‘snapshots’ of diverse unfinished moments of hydraulic infrastructures, territorial transformations and associated imaginaries. It takes the diverse contexts of Turkey, Peru and Spain to shed light on different infrastructures, different moments of infrastructural life, and different moments of imaginaries about hydrosocial territories and the role infrastructure should play in it. The aim is for cross-pollination between at first sight dissimilar cases, to shed light on and raise questions about the complexities and dynamics related to infrastructure, territory, water, power and imaginaries. Furthermore, through combining the notions of hydrosocial territories, imaginaries, governmentalities and subjectivities, and drawing from the associated scholarly discussions, this research advances an innovative and comprehensive conceptual framework to scrutinize the role of infrastructure in making and remaking territories.