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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the imaginaries involved in the production and contestation of knowledge in the context of an environmental controversy in Costa Rica. Drawing on several methods,the paper stresses the need to reimagine the current prominent role of science in legitimating interventions in nature

Paper long abstract:

Environmental impact assessments (EIA) have supremacy over other forms of knowledge in estimating the impact of infrastructures on nature in Costa Rica. This authority is granted by the law 7554 of 1996, which contains eight articles that transfer exclusive responsibility to an "interdisciplinary group of professionals" for monitoring and judging the consequences of human activities for nature. In the context of an environmental controversy surrounding the construction of run-of-the-river dams, this paper shows how local communities challenge the EIA for the proposed hydroelectric projects. Drawing on interviews, visual data and participant observations, this paper examines the imaginaries at play both in the contestation by local communities of the environmental knowledge produced through the EIA and in the creation of alternative forms of knowledge about nature. At the end, the paper argues for a deeper appreciation of the concept of imaginaries in exploring practices of knowing nature, and suggests the need to reimagine the current prominent status of environmental science in the institutional landscape of Costa Rica. This is especially pressing, as the country undergoes its energy transition under climate change and calls for public participation of local communities in environmental knowledge are increasingly frequent. This work contributes to existing research at the intersection of science and technology studies, political ecology and environmental sociology