Presentation short abstract

The paper presents new data collected by indigenous researchers from the Western Amazon, revealing how river travel navigates more-than-human relations, plural knowledges and ambitious plans for road building. In doing so, we speak back to the hegemony of roads and infrastructure-led development.

Presentation long abstract

In this paper, I present early findings from a new project on infrastructural political ecology in the Western Amazon. I am working with a team of 8 Indigenous researchers who are using smart phones and visual methods to research their territories from rivers. We ask how river travel navigates (and informs) more-than-human relations and plural knowledges, as well as underpins particular forms of territorial politics in the face of ambitious plans for road building and large-scale extractivism. In doing so, we extend debates on infrastructure with more-than-human political ecology and speak back to the hegemony of roads and infrastructure-led development.