Paper short abstract:

This presentation summarises the principal author's findings done withing the fieldwork of 2018-2019 concerning public and academic discourse, emerging in connection with upcoming building the 'Krapivinski' hydroelectric power station in the middle stream of the Tom River (Western Siberia).

Paper long abstract:

This research paper presents some author's findings and data gathered within the fieldwork of 2018-2019 in the Kemerovo region (so-called 'Kuzbass'), Russian Federation. The materials presented in this paper are focused on studying the current multi-sided and socially sharp discourse of one of the most economically important infrastructural project in Western Siberia - the project of 'Krapivinski' hydroelectric power station building in the middle stream of the Tom River. The narratives of public and academic discussions on the different aspects of the possible hydraulic structure construction consequences characterized through the lens of the concept of performative languages and practices, typical for key discourse actors such as scientists (hydrologists, geologists, ecologists, social scientists, etc. ), local and regional communities, authorities and industrial corporation representatives, engineers and technical specialists. The paper contains a summary of interviews with representatives of all of these stakeholders illustrating, in general, the variety of group self-determination and motivations in a broad context of not only the given infrastructural project in the hydroelectric power sphere but in terms of socio-economic development as such.

The data presented in this research paper also seems to be illustrative for analyzing the issues of how the knowledge about the river, its role in the landscape, climate change, and local communities' life is being constructed and shared within the frameworks of complex and multidimensional discourses.