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dam-l DAM-L
Hello...
I am a new member on the DAM-L listserve and I would like to give a brief introduction...I am a graduate student in Geography at the University of Texas at Austin with a special interest in large scale dam building. I am particularly intrigued by the Three Gorges Project. I have done some background reading on the scope of both the human and environmental disruptions the new dam will cause. From a cultural geographer's viewpoint of trying to "read" the clues in the physical landscape, the questions I keep coming back to are:
What do large scale dam projects say about the societies that build them? Are they evidence of a society able to control/motivate/inspire its people to make large sacrifices for the communal good? What to large scale dams say about the concentration of power in the society? Why didn't Mao build Three Gorges? Why is it that only after the "liberalization" of China with large scale foreign investment and the push to open Chinese markets to foreign goods has Three Gorges become feasible? Who wants it more--China or foreign investors?
One of the aspects I find most interesting is the distribution of the project benefits versus the costs. It appears those now living in the Yangtze Valley will be bearing the bulk of the negative consequences (i.e. loss of home and livelihood), while those many miles removed from the area(i.e. urban dwellers in coastal cities, political elites, foreign investors) will reap most of the benefits (i.e. hydropower). I guess, that's been the story of many large scale dams...
Anyway, I will keep you updated on the refining of my thesis ideas...
Damon Scott
Department of Geography
University of Texas at Austin
dscott@mail.utexas.edu