Riverhood & River Commons

The latest Moving Rivers Newsletter is published! Check it out here! https://lnkd.in/eDCgHcRc

A new paper on counter-mapping just got published: 'Seeing rivers otherwise: Critical cartography as a form of critical pedagogy'. Authored by Daniele Tubino de Souza, Karolien van Teijlingen, Rutgerd Boelens, and Gabriela Ruales. In this paper, we investigate how counter-cartography, and in particular counter-mapping processes by water justice movements, may benefit from insights from the field and praxis of critical pedagogy. We argue that there is great potential to be unlocked in exploring critical cartography from that perspective. Rather than dissecting the outcomes produced by a critical cartographic practice, we turn our attention to unveiling the transformative and actionable potential that can be found in the mapping process itself. You can find the full paper here:  https://lnkd.in/d8thzHy3

New paper out with colleagues from Riverhood & River Commons network.

We are pleased to share with you our new paper entitled "River co-learning arenas: principles and practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation and multi-scalar (inter)action". In this paper we present some key themes that we see as crucial for engaging with and enacting River Co-learning Arenas (RCAs): (1) river knowledge encounters and truth regimes, (2) transgressive co-learning, (3) confrontation and collaboration dynamics, (4) ongoing reflexivity, (5) transcultural knowledge assemblages and translocal bridging of rooted knowledge. RCAs are seen as multi-actor and multi-level dialogue arenas for developing proposals for river regeneration and promoting social-ecological justice in opposition to dominant technocratic-hydraulic development strategies. We hope you enjoy the reading! /https://lnkd.in/dynHCweg

Dear all, we would like to invite you to join he Moving Rivers Webinar Series organized by Riverhood and River Commons (Wageningen University). This webinar, entitled "Mainstreams and ‘alter’ streams: water stories from fishing communities in Zambia and First Nations communities in Australia", will be taking place on December 06, 2024 / 14:00 – 15:30 CET time.

Good morning/Good afternoon,   You are cordially invited to attend the Moving Rivers Webinar Series organized by Riverhood and River Commons (Wageningen University), every two months.  This Moving Rivers Webinar, entitled "Creating counter-narratives with local riverine communities in Thailand, Laos, and India: Disentangling Multiple Realities", will be taking place on October 11, 2024 / 15:00 – 16:30 CET time Register here: https://lnkd.in/ded7yijq Creating counter-narratives with local riverine communities in Thailand, Laos, and India: Disentangling Multiple Realities In this webinar session, Diana Suhardiman will build on the concept of institutional bricolage and place it in the context of hydropower development planning. Her presentation will focus on: 1) local community responses in Thailand and Laos, including how these are influenced by social movements; 2) how these responses are translated into collective action (or lack thereof); and 3) how local community strategies are embedded in the wider political context and different manifestations of state-citizen relations. Following these reflections, Sarita Bhagat will look at how neoliberal ways of managing rivers often result in marginalised riverine communities moving away from, or adapting to, new livelihoods. Drawing on ongoing work in the Warna river basin, the talk will focus on the changing relationship of fishing communities and farmers in relation to the development of dams and regulated river flows. The researcher uses counter-mapping and art-based methods to explore these relationships. Speakers Sarita Bhagat is a PhD researcher in the River Commons Project at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a Fellow at the Society for Promoting Participatory Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune. Her research focuses on exploring different knowledges, imaginaries, values and practices that animate existing socio-political ways of governing rivers. Diana Suhardiman is Director of KITLV and Professor of Natural Resource Governance, Climate and Equity at Leiden University. Putting power and politics central in the contemporary struggles of natural resource and climate governance in Southeast Asia, she looks at how state-citizens relations manifest in ever changing dynamic of livelihood and institutional (re)making. We look forward to having you attend the event! Riverhood & River Commons team

Good morning/Good afternoon,   You are cordially invited to attend the Moving Rivers Webinar Series organized by Riverhood and River Commons (Wageningen University), every two months.  This Moving Rivers Webinar, entitled "Creating counter-narratives with local riverine communities in Thailand, Laos, and India: Disentangling Multiple Realities", will be taking place on October 11, 2024 / 15:00 – 16:30 CET time Register here: https://lnkd.in/ded7yijq Creating counter-narratives with local riverine communities in Thailand, Laos, and India: Disentangling Multiple Realities In this webinar session, Diana Suhardiman will build on the concept of institutional bricolage and place it in the context of hydropower development planning. Her presentation will focus on: 1) local community responses in Thailand and Laos, including how these are influenced by social movements; 2) how these responses are translated into collective action (or lack thereof); and 3) how local community strategies are embedded in the wider political context and different manifestations of state-citizen relations. Following these reflections, Sarita Bhagat will look at how neoliberal ways of managing rivers often result in marginalised riverine communities moving away from, or adapting to, new livelihoods. Drawing on ongoing work in the Warna river basin, the talk will focus on the changing relationship of fishing communities and farmers in relation to the development of dams and regulated river flows. The researcher uses counter-mapping and art-based methods to explore these relationships. Speakers Sarita Bhagat is a PhD researcher in the River Commons Project at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a Fellow at the Society for Promoting Participatory Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune. Her research focuses on exploring different knowledges, imaginaries, values and practices that animate existing socio-political ways of governing rivers. Diana Suhardiman is Director of KITLV and Professor of Natural Resource Governance, Climate and Equity at Leiden University. Putting power and politics central in the contemporary struggles of natural resource and climate governance in Southeast Asia, she looks at how state-citizens relations manifest in ever changing dynamic of livelihood and institutional (re)making. We look forward to having you attend the event! Riverhood & River Commons team

Moving Rivers Webinar #8, April 26, 2024 "Reflections on the transformation of two Colombian river basins"   Speakers: Arturo Escobar (Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia) and Laura Giraldo-Martínez (PhD researcher, River Commons, WUR) In this webinar, River Commons PhD Laura Giraldo-Martínez gave a talk on “River memories and enlivening infrastructures along the Bogotá River”. Laura pointed out that rivers are places of memory and coexistence; and that political and social concerns are therefore inextricable from memory. The Bogotá River case explores how diverse socio-ecological memories, and their spatialization or materialization in river infrastructures, have historically shaped and continue to influence the river’s meaning, its current significance, and our ability to imagine alternative futures. Two concepts are central to this: river memories, and river infrastructures. In his talk, which he gave in representation also of the Cauca Valley Tapestry of Alternatives, Arturo Escobar focused on “re-storying” rivers as a central thread. He presented the campaign/project Un Cauca, Muchos Mundos, which is “a critical trajectory that challenges dominant narratives” regarding rivers. He mentioned territorial assemblages, three locations along the Cauca River (Oriente Cali, Villa Rica, Suárez), that (re)present territorial design alternatives. The project Un Cauca, Muchos Mundos aims to foster convergences between different “transformational alternatives” (e.g., gender, epistemic justice, urban gardening, wetland restoration…) following an intersectional approach. For more information on the webinar series, go to https://lnkd.in/ejbeuMKa

Join the Moving Rivers Webinar, entitled "Reflections on the transformation of two Colombian river basins: navigating between river memories and an eco-ontological approach", with Arturo Escobar and Laura Giraldo-Martinez, which will take place on April 26, 2024 / 15:00 – 16:30 CET time :) Registration form: https://lnkd.in/dAjHBwrq

The International Conference “Rios en movimiento”: interweaving riverside communities, social movements and academia The global nature of the dynamics that affect rivers, bringing many of them close to ecological collapse and provoking political, cultural, and socioeconomic crises, makes it essential to scale up and broaden place-based river struggles. Therefore, the “Ríos en Movimiento” International Conference that took place in Manizales, Colombia, from 12 to 15 March 2024, was part of the Riverhood and River Commons projects and created a space to exchange learnings about the problems of rivers worldwide, their main struggles, care practices and demands of those who inhabit them. This conference aimed to approach the rivers and their movements from different perspectives and provide a space for conversation, allowing close interaction among riverside communities, social movements, and academia. To this end, diverse art expressions played a central role. Diverse methodologies for weaving conversations during the event, including audiovisuals, artistic pieces, river walks, alternative cartographies, songs, and academic presentations were used. Furthermore, we had a permanent art exhibition with the work of the collectives “NaaK Memorias del Agua”, “Entre Ríos” and “Orika” at the creative gallery Bestiario. During the event, we also visited several of the micro-watersheds of the Kumanday bio-geo-territory: Cuenca Taguambí, Cuenca Quebrada Olivares, and Cuenca Río Chinchiná. These territorial visits were an invitation to understand the river as much more than a continuous stream of water flowing into the sea and an opportunity to learn about the work of local collectives such as Eco-finca La Soledad, Senderos de Luz, Líderes Alto del Castillo, Comunativa, Huerta Urbana NAKSI, and Tierra Libre. “Rios en movimiento” was organized as one of the knowledge exchange activities of the Riverhood and River Commons research projects and had the support of Alianza Justicia Hídrica, Universidad de Caldas, Centro Cultural Universitario Rogelio Salmina, Corporación Nodo – NaaK Memorias del agua, Movimiento Socio-ambiental Kumanday, Natural Seeds Alliance, Tejido de Colectivos Unitierra Manizales y Suroccidente Colombiano, Tejinando Sentipensares (Tejido de pluriveresidades de a pie), Asociación Broederlijk Delen y CENSAT Agua Viva. By Ana Arbelaez Trujillo