The erasure erased. Political ecologies of absence and rexistence

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Authors: Rutgerd Boelens
Cited by: 1
References: 9

Abstract

We need an ontology of water absence, on the fabrication of and dwelling in vanishing water worlds. Such analytic requires a relational and scalar justice perspective on intertwined worlds of absence (scarcity), overabundance (flooding), and squandering (grabbing). Next, absence cannot be assumed but is a battlefield. Nothing, not even absence, is granted to the dispossessed. Even more, since modernist techno-political powers seek to ‘erase the erasure’ – from blue-washing damscapes to digital-twinning rivers to bulldozering genocide. This asks engaged scholars to expand our imagination beyond the visible, remember ourselves to crosspollinating academia-grassroots-activist alliances, and join modes of rexistence.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Water Governance and Infrastructure Posthumanist Ethics and Activism Geographies of human-animal interactions

Publication details

Journal / source
Dialogues in Human Geography
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publication date
19 May 2026
Language
EN