New Approaches
Resource Frontiers will shape three core anthropological debates:
Hydraulic sovereignty
Our project will re-evaluate social scientific theorisations of space-based sovereignty through a focus on trans-border water: a substance that, through its fluidity, exceeds the ability to be comprehensively governed
Trans-border resource nationalism
We will conceptually broaden studies of resource nationalism – including its Sinophobic dimensions - by asking how its forms are shaped in relation to waters spanning national borders and in relation to legal concepts shaped in different jurisdictions
Mega-infrastructure
We will deepen social scientific analysis of mega-infrastructure projects related to water extraction and hydroelectricity generation, asking how infrastructure becomes a key 'thing' through which people understand what frontiers are