Deceptions of Infrastructure: An Anthropological and Eco-historical Study of Hydrological Interventions in Drežničko Polje Cover Image

Obmane infrastrukture: antropološki i ekohistorijski ogledi hidroloških zahvata u Drežničkom polju
Deceptions of Infrastructure: An Anthropological and Eco-historical Study of Hydrological Interventions in Drežničko Polje

Author(s): Ivona Grgurinović, Sanja Horvatinčić
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure , Human Ecology, Political Ecology, Environmental interactions
Published by: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
Keywords: anthropology of infrastructure; ecohistory; karst field; sinkholes; Drežničko polje; Drežnica; memorial landscape; commodification of nature;

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the effects of infrastructural interventions in the natural environment of Drežnica, based on many years of field research and an interdisciplinary approach to methodology. In this way, it contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the historical, social, and economic elements of the relationship between humans and the natural environment, as key notions of modernity. Several questions are addressed: who manages the karst landscape, using which technology, promising which results, under which circumstances, and whose interest it is to protect the landscape. These questions are considered from a longer historical perspective, with a focus on changes in the management model of Drežničko polje. Relying on published and archival sources, the article sets a broader eco-historical framework for the analysis of the contemporary anthropogenic impact on Drežničko polje, using the example of the current project of its retention. The effects of hydro-engineering operations on the local community are viewed through the analytical prism of processual anthropology of infrastructure, based on the analysis of the bureaucratic discourse of environmental policy studies and interviews with members of the local community and environmental organizations.

  • Issue Year: 61/2024
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 191-217
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: Croatian
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