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Contribution short abstract

I propose to mobilize hydraulic infrastructure as a conceptual lens to productively explore re/configuration dynamics within hydrosocial spaces. This I exemplify by tracing the Turkey-Northern Cyprus Water Pipeline, attending to the infrastructuring of northern Cyprus and the islands division .

Contribution long abstract

Hydraulic infrastructure once again experiences a continuous rise in construction. Aside from facilitating flows of h2o, hydraulic infrastructure as reflective of power structures emerges as a shaping force and central node within hydrosocial spaces. The intricate means of how hydraulic infrastructures re/configures hydrosocial relations throughout its lifecycle remain, however, conceptually blurry and in demand of closer examination.

I propose to explore this matter from within, by examining occurring dynamics through the infrastructure in mobilizing hydraulic infrastructure as a perspective. Attending to its hybrid nature – its material and relational form together with its underlying and emerging sociotechnical imaginaries – directs the gaze through the mosaic of different infrastructural de/stabilizations while pointing to epistemological entry points for closer empirical examination. In mapping those, I disentangle how hydraulic infrastructure acts to transform relations between space, people, and materiality throughout its biography, by that also highlighting the importance of explicitly considering different temporalities in the study on hydraulic infrastructure.

Empirically tracing the Turkey-Northern Cyprus Water Pipeline over a four-month research period, I exemplify what insights can be generated when seeing through a pipeline. Anchoring each infrastructure vignette at a different stage within the water pipelines’ lifecycle, I attend to the intersecting temporalities of the water pipeline with those of northern Cyprus as a de facto state, illuminating their de/stabilizing momentum. Relating these dynamics to the island’s division while positioning the water transfer project within its geohistorical context, I give view on the perhaps not-so-obvious ways of the pipelines’ infrastructuring of the Cyprus conflict.