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Taming the groundwater in rural Asia: The biopolitics of constructing groundwater‐scape
Author(s) -
Wang KuanChi,
Ho ChunYi,
Chen ChihYuan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
singapore journal of tropical geography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9493
pISSN - 0129-7619
DOI - 10.1111/sjtg.12358
Subject(s) - groundwater , agrarian society , water resource management , agriculture , water table , environmental planning , geography , environmental science , geology , geotechnical engineering , archaeology
In this paper, we leverage on a case study about the governance of groundwater and the hazard of land subsidence in Yunlin, Taiwan, to address the state's political strategies of producing ‘hydro‐social territories’. Our goal is to examine how local agents and their knowledge of the socio‐technological system shape groundwater use, with particular attention on how that system has changed due to the governmentalized regulation of groundwater resources as a means to mitigate land subsidence. Drawing from the local agrarian development and its tube well irrigation networks that underlie the groundwater‐scape in this research, the paper demonstrates that the ‘hydro‐social territory’ itself is complicated, as local farmers who rely on groundwater are never fully controlled by the state, regardless of whether or not they use groundwater for agricultural cultivation or other purposes, yet at the same time, the intention of governmentalizing the local groundwater regime is concealed and has become more concrete with the introduction of new sciences and technologies.