Fabricating Irrigators : Contested Hydrosocial Territories and Subject-Making in Spain's Tagus-Segura Interbasin Transfer Arena
Bourguignon, Nicholas (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Villamayor Tomás, Sergio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Boelens, Rutgerd (Wageningen University. Department of Environmental Sciences)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	This article explores how irrigation farmer (regante) subjectivities are constructed in direct conjunction with the production of modernist-capitalist hydrosocial territories across the Tagus and Segura river basins in central and south-east Spain. We explore the complexities and contradictions of how, at various scales of governance, authorities establish and seek to realize ideal regante subjects across time and space. We mobilize a hydrosocial territory approach, combined with feminist political ecology and hegemony literature, to explore how such ideal subjects are built through Spanish and regional legislation and policies from 1866 to 2023. Through interviews with regantes in six irrigation communities, we identify different ideal and actual regante subjects in territories interconnected by the Tagus-Segura Aqueduct. We analyze how policy shifts lead to multiple and contradictory roles and responsibilities for regante subjects, which are linked to plot modernization, agricultural professionalization, and farmer rejuvenation. These sharpen divisions between smallholders and emerging large capitalist actors. Counterhegemonic territorial proposals resist these pressures by embodying alternative values and imaginaries. We conclude that through such counterhegemonic struggles, subject construction is enriched, identifying real-life existing and future alternatives for more just hydrosocial territories.
Grants:	European Commission 764908 European Commission 101002921 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CNS2022-136060
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Subjectivities ; Hydrosocial territories ; Tagus-Segura Aqueduct ; Water ; Irrigation ; Spain ; Hegemony
Published in:	Water, Vol. 16, Issue 2 (January 2024) , art. 192, ISSN 2073-4441

DOI: 10.3390/w16020192

21 p, 1.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles