Critique of Anthropology· 2026Q2
Epistemically resistant, unruly and relational: Modelling groundwater in the Salar de Atacama (Chile)
- 2citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Groundwater in Chile's Salar de Atacama is presented as 'epistemically resistant' and 'unruly,' defying easy scientific modeling and justification for continued mining extraction.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Groundwater in the Salar de Atacama is characterized by epistemic resistance and unruliness, defying simple factual representation.
- Existing scientific models, used by mining companies and regulators, often simplify groundwater complexities to justify extraction.
- Indigenous-led scientific teams are developing new approaches that acknowledge and engage with groundwater's unruliness.
- These new approaches offer potential for novel political and ecological contestation regarding resource management.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This article engages with the dynamics of groundwater’s epistemic resistance, its persistent resistance to being a fact, and manifold uncertainties in the human and more-than-human relations of the Salar de Atacama. How might expanded considerations of groundwater’s unruliness better inform knowledge of it and future relations with it? I draw on legal cases that illustrate entrenched problems with mining company and regulatory groundwater science, a set of peer-reviewed published studies that propose ever-better models of subsurface activity that tend to justify ongoing extraction, and the work of Indigenous-led teams of scientists engaging with unruliness and proposing new approaches to political and ecological contestation.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Critique of Anthropology, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences