Paper short abstract:

This ethnographic research looks at how constant flooding of the Paraguayan River is understood differently by residents of the slums of Asunción city and the state, resulting in social-ecological and political conflicts. It questions how top-down environment policies could be used against the poor.

Paper long abstract:

This ethnographic research looks at how constant flooding of the Paraguayan River is understood differently by residents of the slums of Asunción city and the state, resulting in social-ecological and political conflicts. New urban redevelopment projects deem that floodplains areas of the city are the "rightful" space of the river and that marginalized communities living there should move elsewhere. However, these areas, known as Bañados, were never empty floodplains. Indigenous, mestizos and rural migrant communities have lived there since colonial times, forming a historically rooted socio-ecology with the neighboring river. This research aims to understand the way(s) in which the recent urban redevelopment projects and top-down environmental policies in Asunción create a socio-ecological conflict between what is understood as the "rights" of the river as opposed to that of marginalized urban communities. In this way, it addresses the main question: how is the Paraguayan State evoking the social and political jurisprudence of the river as a way to delineate environmental claims and deny access to land, housing, and basic services to the urban poor? Findings combine ethnographic accounts drawn from different locations of Asunción city, state institutions, and historical archival research. In this way, the goal is to advance understandings about novel forms of governing people and the "environment" in an era marked both by climate anxiety and uncertainty as well as greater social and political inequalities.