Paper short abstract:

The places traversed by the river Periyar in central Kerala (South West India), and the river itself, are the foci of this paper. The fluvial narratives are punctuated by the riparian relationships through time and space up to the biggest flood of the century in 2018 August.

Paper long abstract:

During the pre-state forms of urbanisation, the river Periyar along with the backwater system afforded easy means of transport and trade. The navigability of rivers for long stretches deep into interiors, and the later development (1800s) of the canals provided for an elaborate system of cargo boats and ferries. This was an efficient and convenient conduit for early inland trade, especially for the transportation of raw materials from the eastern mountains to the Cochin harbour. This served as the prime channel for colonial timber trade. At present the river is the sole source of drinking water for the city of Kochi in Central Kerala and the small towns along the banks of the river, which themselves are fast evolving into new urban extensions.

The former coordinates had been geographical particulars like hillocks, ponds, water channels, and occupational features like agricultural fields serviced by some of the smaller rivulets. These have been important spatial boundary markers. This is not to suggest that places or regions existed in conditions of insularity. As Eric Wolf (1982) argues, there never have been any "cultural isolates". But in contemporary contexts, technologies of control and the versatile flows of capital have dissolved earlier markers and boundaries, and reconfigured the region in terms of neoliberal processes. The contemporary flood of 2018 brings with the waters a gamut of unintended designs into the riparian narratives in the making.

Paper short abstract:

Rivers and lakes have long been part of the physical and cultural landscape of Ireland. The presentation will compare narratives about the formation and naming of major lakes and rivers from medieval literature and modern folklore, and provide insights into the life and imagination of the Irish.

Paper long abstract:

Irish culture, both written and oral, is peppered with narratives on place formation and etymologies.

Lough Neagh, Lough Dearg, the River Shannon and the River Liffey are major landmarks, as noted in the medieval tales The Second Battle of Moytura (Gray, 1982) and The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel (Knott, 1916). Stories about the formation and naming of the aforementioned landmarks occur in both medieval literature and modern folklore. As these lakes and rivers are substantial, they have captured the imagination of literati and ordinary people alike. The overarching research question is whether the same narratives occur in the two bodies of tradition. All in all, the narratives express that intimate relationship between people and landscape, encapsulated in Danaher's words: 'There is scarcely a hill, a rock, or river pool, a ruined castle or abbey which has not its own story…All these are part of the oral currency of the countryside' (1978,111). This, and other functions of the narratives will be explored, showing that waterways are indeed socio-culturally adaptable ecosystems (Vallerani and Visentin, 2018).

References

Danaher, K. (1978). Stories and Storytelling in Ireland. In E. Speed Norton (Ed.) Folk Literature of the British Isles. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 107-114.

Gray, E. A. (1982). Cath Maige Tuired. The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Naas: Irish Text Society Vol. LII.

Knott, E. (1916). Togail Bruidne Da Derga. Dublin: Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series Vol. VIII.

Vallerani, F. & Visentin, F. (2018) Waterways and the Cultural Landscape. London: Routledge.

Paper short abstract:

Using empirical research findings, this paper explores the past & current use of wetlands for memorial practices. Repositioned within our cultural imaginings as important social conduits, rivers connect humans with the landscape & with each other, to enable reflections on deep time & human finitude.

Paper long abstract:

Wetlands have long been regarded as liminal spaces; where earth, sky and water meet in fluid states of materiality. Humans that utilise wetlands for sustenance, recreation, ceremony or retreat are likewise viewed as similarly hybrid and transboundary. Utilising empirical data drawn from a recent research project, 'WetlandLIFE', this paper explores how contemporary uses of wetland river spaces draw upon this concept of liminality, particularly around performances of remembrance. Drawing upon data gathered at three English case study sites this paper outlines the differing ways that humans throughout history collectively mark time and passing in these river corridors. Neolithic sweet tracks abut riverside benches with memorial plaques; commemorative planting of arboreal copses stand above streams where twinkling diyas float downstream on holy days; turf labyrinths share eyelines with riparian bird hides dedicated to past ornithologists; poetry returns us to remembered lives and imagined waterscapes. Making use of the different remembrance narratives of the research participants, we explore the ways in which these saturated spaces generate embodied responses of inclusion, through which the respondents detail their immersion into the landscape, becoming intimately connected to their surroundings. These memorial practises can be highly mobile physical engagements with river spaces which involve digging, painting, walking, photographing, crafting - and can be more contemplative; sitting, reflecting, encountering, accepting. Connecting humans across time and space, rivers can be repositioned within our cultural imaginings as important social conduits, spaces where humans can connect with the landscape, and each other, to reflect on deep time and human finitude.

Paper short abstract:

Flood waters rise rapidly and recede rapidly but they acquire stable place in people's consciousness. The paper will deal with flood memories of four urban communities. It will focus on the aspects of narrativity of natural disasters, as well as their place in life-stories and oral repertories.

Paper long abstract:

'Since then, I live with constant fear in autumn', these words the 93-years-old Berta used to summarize her memories of the flooding of the Daugava river in 1969. Flood waters rise rapidly and recede rapidly but they acquire stable place in people's consciousness. There have been two major events of flooding in the Daugava delta - in 1969 and 2005. Even though they did not pose real threat to peoples' lives, the experience of flooding is among those life changing events that are necessarily transformed into stories. The paper will deal with flood memories of the inhabitants of four neighborhoods of Riga located on the banks of the Daugava river. These urban communities are currently being studied in the project "Living next to the port: Eco-narratives, local histories and community activism in the Daugava delta' (sponsored by the Latvian Council of Science). The paper will focus on the aspects of narrativity of natural disasters, as well as their place in life-stories and oral repertories of the communities.

Paper short abstract:

This paper suggests that the river can challenge identity perspectives and bring together diverse travellers; re-surfacing memories and narratives for travellers to reflect upon, as the river surrounds and resounds; a liquid material medium continuously shaping the literary and literal

Paper long abstract:

For travellers in Devon and Cornwall, the literary intersects with the literal. Many have read about the rivers of Du Maurier, Defoe, Williamson and so come to the banks; their imaginations filled with adventures, tales and emotional narratives from those sources or beyond, as they sit, watching the surface of the water, looking to the deep.

Language equally articulates identity politics: an "us and them" living across the river; the visible banks of the other side inviting comparison. Within the undercurrent of political uncertainties, the troubled traveller meanders in mind to rivers which separate counties, regions and nations; a liquid barrier which determines and defines the identities on this side from that side in an all too tangible way. And yet the interactive mingling space of the river; with swimmers and boaters and crabbers and ferry crossers; in bringing diverse people together simultaneously pulls as the definitions of such arbitrary definitive boundary markers.

This paper draws upon research conducted through in-place, mobile methodologies on the banks of three rivers in Devon and Cornwall; sharing some of the lyrical narratives of participants weaved and inspired by rivers. A resounding on-site phrase is the act of "reading the river"; in terms of traveller's awareness of tides and currents, sounds and shifts. This paper considers to what extent the river speaks back to inform those sounds, voices, and dialogues drifting with the river. In so doing, understanding the river as a material medium in which traces of conversation, thought and inspiration can re-surface.

Paper short abstract:

The paper will address the importance of the enthusiast and the volunteers in the social lives of the canals in the UK today. Oral history interviews and participant observation will be drawn upon to illustrate the value of the canal societies to the social lives of the canals.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will discuss how waterway enthusiasts brought change to the canal network in the UK and how those enthusiasts significantly influence the social life of the canals today. The role of the volunteers within the numerous Canal Societies and the Waterway Recovery Group's 'Navvies' remains critical and local champions are often a driving force for change, despite more formal support from organisations like the Canal and River Trust.

Leisure activities on and around canals were not

,always well-documented in the past. Nowadays there is more readily available evidence of both formally organised and informal leisure lives. Whether attending a performance by the Mikron Theatre players, visiting a canal to see the spectacle of a cavalcade of boats as part of an annual festival or walking the dog there are plenty of examples of how canals contribute to the social lives of the people living in the areas within which they are located but the real enthusiasts demonstrate a commitment to the canals which is not dictated by the weather but their heartfelt commitment to the historical built environment and the legacy of the past. By drawing upon the oral history interviews for Phd research, the words of current canal society members in Wales are used to illustrate the ongoing significance of the enthusiast in helping bring leisure experiences and a social life to both the canals and to the wider community.

Paper short abstract:

London's continuously re-purposed waterways occupy a hybrid, convivial space that has become home to itinerant boat dwellers who both make places and have their places made in a socio-natural dialectic that reflects, reveals and creates claims to belong.

Paper long abstract:

London's waterways were originally built as 'ruthlessly efficient arteries of the industrial revolution, unconcerned with notions of place or community' (Knight, D., 2010; p218). This pre-dated industry-centric logic still carves it's way through the city occupying socio spatial margins that have been continuously repurposed (Scovazzi, 2016).

In 1995 boaters took advantage of British Waterway's new affordable Continuous Cruising licence which meant full-time, live aboard cruising. The increase in boaters turned 'watery regions of refuge' (Scott, 2012) into bustling 'linear villages' (Bowles, 2015), causing concern about over-crowding and the future of Continuous Cruising in the city. Contention between 'newbies' and 'old-timers' (Bowles, 2015) lead to territoriality and hierarchies of belonging on the waterways (Back, 2012). Firstly I discuss how these hierarchies are embodied and performed. Secondly, belonging is not only explicit in the actions of boaters, but implicit in the bodies of those who make claims to belong in certain places. If places are made through repeated, everyday actions that work on both the neighbourhood and the individual (Benson and Jackson, 2012), belonging may be maintained through the understanding of the bodies that dwell there. In a Canal and River Trust survey 77% of London Continuous Cruisers identified as 'White English/British' (CRT, 2016). I ask whether the waterways mimic the countryside as a 'white landscape' (Agyeman and Spooner, 1997) and reproduce the pervading understanding of natural places as a white spaces?

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the social life of the River Tyne by reconstructing a 'hidden history' of its once-popular Barge Day ritual. Using original archival sources, the paper shows how ordinary people were involved in the event and reveals both its 'carnivalesque' atmosphere and political symbolism.

Paper long abstract:

New environmental histories have rehabilitated water memories of the complex socio-natural relations and environmental processes that have shaped the making of the River Tyne, in the northeast of England (Skelton, 2017; Coates, 2018). The river has also attracted commentary from sociologists and geographers who have studied changes to the urban waterfront and new public infrastructure that has emerged because of culture-led regeneration (Bailey et al, 2004; Miles, 2005; Mah, 2010). The literatures have produced a 'Tyneography' that has fed a 'fluvial sense of place' and a memoryscape defined by environmental change in the face of industrialisation and waterfront transformation through the emerging post-industrial economy. Somewhat neglected, however, has been smaller stories of socio-cultural use, ritual and event. This paper seeks to extend our understanding of the social life of the River Tyne by reconstructing a 'hidden history' of its Barge Day ritual. This annual Ascension Day custom, which ended in 1901, was a major public holiday and transformed the river into a festive space as Newcastle's mayor, civic dignitaries and trade guilds processed along the river to assert riparian water rights. Using original archival sources that have been extensively mined to help reconstruct the history of Barge Day, the paper seeks to capture the 'carnivalesque' atmosphere of the event and its meanings, drawing out the heterotopic qualities of the ritual as experienced in Tyneside, alongside a more measured evaluation of the ritual's contribution to the performance and consolidation of the power and privileges enjoyed by local political and commercial elites.