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Just as in other parts of Spain, the Guadalhorce Valley, M&aacute, laga, has a long history of policies based on &lsquo, hydraulic utopianism&rsquo, (regenerationist and Franco-ist), bent on &lsquo, reorganizing&rsquo, political, geographic, and human nature. Residents of the neighboring sub-basin, the R&iacute, o Grande valley, have seen how these policies, designed to transfer rural water to modern urban centers, have turned the Guadalhorce hydrosocial territory into a &lsquo, hydraulic dystopia&rsquo, In this article, we examine how R&iacute, o Grande valley residents mobilized to maintain control over the development and use of their resources, livelihoods, and knowledge systems, when modernist-urbanist policies planned to take their water from a major dam on the R&iacute, o Grande. Interviewing actors at different scales we examined how this anti-dam movement organized massively in a creative, multi-actor, and multi-scale network. Our results also show that this unified, successful fight against the &lsquo, common enemy&rsquo, the mega-hydraulic construction, has become more complex, as threats crop up not only from the &lsquo, city over there&rsquo, but also from &lsquo, internal&rsquo, hydro-territorial transformations. These sprout from policies to modernize traditional irrigation systems, supposedly to &lsquo, save water&rsquo, but critical voices assume that it is all about passing on the &lsquo, surplus&rsquo, to M&aacute, laga city, or using that water to expand agribusiness. We conclude that the challenge lies in critically integrating multiple forms of knowledge, stakeholders, and scales to both defend collective water management and creatively construct anti-hegemonic alternatives.

Scholars are rarely able to examine anti-dam movements that result in project suspensions or cancellations since these cases are rare empirically. Yet, they are central to understanding how anti-dam movements can succeed. This paper analyzes the movements against Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam and Thailand’s Kaeng Suea Ten Dam. Likely the most successful anti-dam movements in Southeast Asia in recent years, they achieved suspension over 6 and 37 years, respectively. The research is based on 60 semistructured interviews carried out over a period of 8 months. Leveraging thinking from both the constructionist and structural schools within the field of social movement studies, it is found that the framing of the Myitsone Dam as a project threatening the national cultural heritage of Myanmar (in combination with political change in the country in 2010/2011) largely explains the movement’s success. Meanwhile, the set of sophisticated tactics (including inter alia demonstrations, Thai Baan research, 24/7 monitoring of the dam site, and spiritual activities) was decisive for the efficacy of the movement against Thailand’s Kaeng Suea Ten Dam.

The anti-Kawabe-dam movements in the harm spheres stopped discussing the validity of the dam plan after accepting the compensation. But the anti-Kawabe-dam movements in the benefit spheres could not only appeal the invalidity of the dam plan in the public spheres, but also succeeded in organizing the farmers' movements and the fishermen's movements, which had the legal means to prevent the dam plan. And the anti-dam movements tried to form the alternative to the dam plan formed by the technocrats.

This paper deals with anti-dam movements in a mountain village named Itsuki. Benefit and harm spheres are formed by administrative systems and social movements. But now social integration as interest adjustment is dependent upon system integration. So it was difficult for anti-dam movements in harm spheres to oppose the construction of a dam, because anti-dam movements were devided and national administrative systems were very strong.

This paper presents the relationship between organizational strategies of anti-Kawabe River dam movements and political chance structures. Single-issue-movements, which have more possibilities than multi-issue-movements, are changing local governments around the Kawabe River.

In recent times, increasing instances of population displacement from many large dam construction projects have led to increase in anti-dam protest movements. But some of these protest movements are more successfully mobilized than others. The differences in success are largely due to the kind of political system they are based in. Studies show that formation and mobilization patterns of the protest movements are largely determined by the nature of state and its political system. However, there is lack of comparative study in this regard especially in the field of anti-dam protest movement. This thesis aims to fill that knowledge gap by comparing the anti-dam protest mobilization in Sardar Sarovar Dam, India and Three Gorges Dam, China. The Study finds that political structures have significant impact on anti-dam protest mobilization and citizens of democracy enjoy more freedom in anti-dam protest mobilization than those in authoritarian polity.

O presente artigo faz uma avaliação da hidreletricidade no Brasil a partir da sua importância na matriz elétrica do país, do caráter prioritário que a geração hidrelétrica assume na gestão dos recursos hídricos, e dos impasses e controvérsias do ponto de vista social e ambiental decorrentes da implantação e operação dos empreendimentos hidrelétricos. Para ilustrar as questões levantadas com relação às grandes usinas, são referenciados dois estudos de caso - a UHE Tijuco Alto, em processo de licenciamento ambiental pelo Ibama; e a UHE Barra Grande, cujo processo de licenciamento foi marcado por uma série de irregularidades. Por fim, são apontadas possíveis alternativas para a geração hidrelétrica, em particular a repotenciação de usinas e um maior incentivo às pequenas centrais hidrelétricas. This article assesses hydroelectricity in Brazil according to its importance as one of the country’s main energy sources and also to its social and environmental impasses and controversies derived from the implantation and operation of hydroelectric undertakings. In order to illustrate the questions related to large power plants that are brought up along the article, two case reports are presented: Tijuco Alto Hydroelectric Power Plant, which is going through Ibama’s (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) environmental license process; and Barra Grande Hydroelectric Power Plant, whose environmental license process has been affected by several irregularities. Finally, possible alternatives for hydroelectric production are pointed out, particularly power plant re-potentiation and a greater incentive to undersized hydroelectric plants.