Abstract
Challenging the modern ideal of human bodies as being in control both of bodies of nature and of the bodies of technology made to control nature, this chapter considers the vulnerability of large-scale hydropower dams and the intimate interdependencies between dam bodies, water bodies, and human bodies. It proposes a water-centered, rather than human-centered, reading of rivers and in particular of dammed rivers, through an understanding of hydropower dams as vulnerable bodies. Once constructed by human beings, hydropower dams take on a life of their own and become living organisms as they age, interact with land and rivers, and withstand and react to changing environmental conditions. This chapter also discusses processes of knowledge production in which different bodies of knowledge come to be perceived as embodied or disembodied and are granted status as primitive or scientific. Taking her point of departure in her own embodied history, the author seeks to retrace indigenous Sámi understandings of human cultural interconnectedness with nature. With a focus on the specific river Julevädno running through Sápmi in the north of Sweden, the chapter draws attention to the unpredictable agency of water and the porosity of human bodies, emphasizing risk and vulnerability as essential elements of their interrelation.
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Notes
- 1.
Unna Julevädno is the Lule Sámi name for “Little Lule River.”
- 2.
BN and SN personal conversation with the author February 3, 2014.
- 3.
Electricity production in Sweden is to 90 percent based on equal parts of hydropower and nuclear power, with the nuclear power functioning as a stable base and the hydropower being easier to regulate corresponding to the different needs over the season.
- 4.
Participatory observations combined with interviews by author with HS, TW August 2–3, 2011. Records available in M-B Öhman log book.
- 5.
SÖ, personal interview with author, May 25, 2012.
- 6.
In my doctoral thesis, Öhman 2007, there is a chapter on the Julevädno. My PostDoc project funded by The Swedish Research Council (VR) 2009–2010, “Situated perspectives on hydropower exploitation in Sápmi: Swedish technological expansion in the twentieth century and its impacts on indigenous peoples,” focused entirely on Julevädno and was followed by a research project funded by VR 2010–2012 “DAMMED: Security, Risk and Resilience around the Dams of Sub-Arctica,” where Julevädno again was the main focus, along with another river.
- 7.
There is no official statistics on dam failures available. What is available is the ICOLD website, page on “dam safety” as well as a Wikipedia page mentioning major dam failures (participatory observation by author at ICOLD meeting, Dam Safety Technical Committee, June 4, 2012, Kyoto).
- 8.
ELT, personal conversation with author, Aug. 1, 2011.
- 9.
The participatory observations I have made are at a hydropower company control station. These were in the form that I was allowed to be at the control station observing the work and asking questions to the persons working. I was not involved in any way in the work and would sit quietly when any situation arose that demanded attention by the staff. Each such occasion lasted during around 2–4 h for up to 4 days in a row. I have tried to come during different times of the year, and those occasions have been in February, April, August, and October. Other participatory observations have been more of actually involving; this has been at the ICOLD and SwedCOLD meetings mentioned.
- 10.
Financed by the Swedish Research Council, 2010–2012.
- 11.
LJN, personal interview, Aug. 2, 2010.
- 12.
The so-called maximum storage capacity of the Suorva dam/reservoir is 5.9 · 109 m3 water. See Viklander 1997.
- 13.
In English the committee has been named “The Swedish Committee for Design Flood Determination” – but a direct translation from Swedish (Flödeskommittén) is simply “the Flow Committee.”
- 14.
In regard to the unruliness of rivers, water bodies, and human attempts to take control, as well as losing control, there is a massive body of both academic and nonacademic literature; see, for instance, Wittfogel 1957; White 1995; Öhman 2007; Hoag and Öhman 2008; Summitt 2011; Stoor 2011; Niemi 2012; Hoag 2013.
- 15.
Vuollerim Vattenfall control station for hydropower, participatory observations by author at several occasions 2010–2012.
- 16.
Polska is a traditional dance among the Nordic countries, often man-woman partner dance, but with variations. See, for instance, the dance video “Polska från Nås, Gagnsföra” available at http://www.acla.se/kultisdans/dansvideo.htm (latest access, May 5, 2014).
- 17.
Unna Julevädno – participatory observations in September 2011.
- 18.
MB, personal communication with author at the SwedCOLD symposium April 17, 2012; DH, personal communication author at the ICOLD meeting in Kyoto, June 3, 2012.
- 19.
Participatory observations by the author at ICOLD meeting, Hanoi, May 23–26, 2010; see also ICOLD undated – history.
- 20.
Participatory observations by the author at the ICOLD meeting Hanoi May 23–26, 2010, and at the ICOLD congress, Kyoto, June 2012.
- 21.
Participatory observation by the author at the SwedCOLD symposiums: Nov. 6, 2008; Apr. 2 and Oct. 20, 2009, Apr. 13 and Oct. 19, 2010; Oct. 2011; Apr. 17, 2012.
- 22.
Participatory observations at SwedCOLD symposiums. Participatory observations at Vattenfall Vuollerim control station 2010–2012.
- 23.
YH, Personal communication with author, at ICOLD meeting Hanoi, May 25, 2010. A major dam is much bigger than a large dam. For the status of a large dam, the height of 15 m of the dam crest is required. For the status of a major dam, the height of 150 m is required. Sweden has no major dam, the highest dam being only 125 m. (Trängslet) (ICOLD undated, dam safety).
- 24.
Participatory observations by the author at ICOLD meeting, Dam Safety Technical Committee, June 4, 2012, Kyoto; Wikipedia undated.
- 25.
Participatory observation by the author at SwedCOLD symposiums 2008–2012 and at ICOLD annual meeting Hanoi May 23–26, 2010, and ICOLD congress Kyoto, 2012.
- 26.
Translated from Swedish by M-B Öhman.
- 27.
Multiple online database searches by the author, January to June, 2012. The document by Höeg et al. 2007 was available online in 2008.
- 28.
Dam engineers and operators, personal conversations by the author at ICOLD and SwedCOLD meetings and at Vattenfall Vuollerim control station, 2010–2012.
- 29.
Personal visit by the author to the Hoover dam, November 8 and 9, 2010.
- 30.
Translated from Swedish by M-B Öhman.
- 31.
TB, personal communication with author at the ICOLD congress, Kyoto, June 5, 2012.
- 32.
LH, personal conversation, Stockholm, August 24, 2010.
- 33.
LJN, personal interview with author, August 2, 2010, Porjus.
- 34.
KL, personal communication with author, April 3, 2014. I too lived in Luleå this fall; it was my first year of secondary school, but in my own memory, there is no trace of these events.
- 35.
Participatory observation by the author at ICOLD meeting, Dam Safety Technical Committee, June 4, 2012, Kyoto.
- 36.
Participatory observation by the author at ICOLD congress, June 8, 2012, Kyoto: Pontu Sjödahl (2012) presented the paper “Experience from two embankment dams equipped with on-line seepage monitoring system based on distributed temperature sensing using optical fibres”, and afterward a discussion took place.
- 37.
Participatory observation by the author: Sam Johansson at discussion ensuing Sjödahl, 2012 presentation at ICOLD congress.
- 38.
Participatory observation by the author: Jürgen Fleitz (2012) presented the paper “A proposal to optimize maintenance of dam monitoring systems seepage. Terroba’s Dam”, presentation and ensuing discussion at the ICOLD congress, June 8th, 2012, Kyoto, Japan, after Sjödahl.
- 39.
Participatory observation by the author at the, ICOLD congress, Kyoto June 6–8, 2012.
- 40.
As new mining projects are now allowed just next to the Julevädno dams, putting more pressure on the dams in Julevädno, I actually write to the Swedish government, to regional authorities, and to the power company, urging them to be careful. But this is another story.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the editor for taking on the work with this exciting and inspiring volume, which made me reconsider how to think and discuss hydropower dams and rivers; Peter Viklander for checking the technical details; all informants; Agneta Silversparf and my mother for valuable details on our family history; the Body/Embodiment group at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, and the sibling group at Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University, USA; Ann Grenell for proofreading and valuable suggestions; peer reviewers for comments, suggestions, and encouragement; and financers of my research project making this possible – Swedish Research Council (2008–2010; 2010–2012) and FORMAS (2012–2015).
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Öhman, MB. (2016). Embodied Vulnerability in Large-Scale Technical Systems: Vulnerable Dam Bodies, Water Bodies, and Human Bodies. In: Käll, L. (eds) Bodies, Boundaries and Vulnerabilities. Crossroads of Knowledge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22494-7_4
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