"Between land and water: urban submergence and muddy politics in the subsiding city" by Marie Belland (ESR13)

What kinds of politics emerge in places that are neither land nor water? Despite efforts to keep water in place, embankments leak, tides overflow draining systems, and whole neighborhoods are chronically flooded. These issues are only becoming more insistent with the realization that many coastal cities around the world are subsiding at rates faster than sea level rise. This webinar draws on research in Semarang (Indonesia), oftentimes labeled a “sinking city”, where it documented the history and agency of human and non-human residents. This research explores the politics and infrastructures that try to keep water separated from land, how coastal spaces historically escaped control and lived amphibiously. It also turns to the future of sinking and how uncertainties open ways for speculation. 

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About the speaker

Marie Belland is an early-career researcher in human geography with an interest in environmental issues and social justice in relation to urban contexts. Her research draws on political ecology, science and technology studies, and feminist theories to study the practices shaping urban watery environments. Her PhD research focuses on coastal practices of knowing and being of land subsidence and groundwater flows in Semarang, Indonesia. Before her PhD, she worked several years in the field of scientific cooperation and participated in research projects in the Ivory Coast, Indonesia, and France. These previous projects investigated, respectively, the experiences of air pollution, water conflicts, and vertical agriculture.

Moderators & discussants

Prof. Margreet Zwarteveen, Professor of Water Governance at IHE Delft, and the invited discussant 

Dr. Amalinda Savirani, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.

This seminar is part of the “The Next Wave of Water Governance” Diffused Conference Thematic Seminar series. The series includes bi-weekly seminars on the key topics of water governance investigated by the NEWAVE Early Stage Researchers. You can register for learn more and see the full schedule of the upcoming sessions at this link.