Presentation short abstract

This paper examines how concepts like restoring, enlivening and rewilding rivers shape diverse cultural values, political contestations and justice struggles. Through cases in the Netherlands and Colombia, it reveals contradictions and power dynamics in river interventions and riverine lifeways.

Presentation long abstract

Over the last years, various initiatives have emerged to restore and protect rivers. With so few free-flowing rivers remaining, their defense has become an urgent global priority. In response to this, governments, NGOs, civil society and international organizations have launched numerous river restoration initiatives. Whereas, critical scholars have called for new ontological approaches to understanding and living with rivers, through their engagement with new water justice movements to defend and enlivening rivers. The different efforts from both sides have not been enough examined. Specifically, the deliberate use of concepts such as enlivening, rewilding, restoring and protecting rivers creates dispute over cultural values and lead to socio-cultural injustices. In the Netherlands, for example, the living-with-water paradigm is creating a crisis in the Dutch cultural identity, social unrest and a turmoil in the pollical debate. While Colombia is coined as an amphibious country due to its riverine inhabitants who have coexisted with river rhythms, the techno control of the rivers is paradoxically advancing alongside with river restoration initiatives, disrupting bio-cultural memory and enclosing amphibious cultures. Therefore, this work carefully examines the meanings, political implications and cultural differences of mobilizing these concepts in settings with high interventions by hydraulic infrastructure, and in places where rivers still flow more freely. By illustrating these two cases, this paper aims to unravel the contradictions, challenges and power structures embedded in the discourses of enlivening, rewilding, restoring and protecting rivers that justify the actions, advocacy and river intervention from the different social sectors.