Journal of European Studies· 2026Q2
Flooding the others: The vanished minority riverscapes of Ada Kaleh and Sorbian Lusatia
- 0citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Dam construction and subsequent resettlement disproportionately impact the cultural heritage and distinct socio-cultural identities of minoritised ethnolinguistic groups, as seen in the submergence of Ada Kaleh and Sorbian villages in Lusatia.
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Key points
- Dam construction and resettlement threaten the intangible cultural heritage of minoritised ethnolinguistic groups.
- Processes of 'invisibilisation,' 'wastelanding,' and 'solastalgia' are key mechanisms of cultural damage.
- The submergence of Ada Kaleh and Sorbian villages serves as a comparative case study.
- Minority landscapes are discursively marginalized and sacrificed for national modernization projects.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
In this article, I focus on the construction of dams and reservoirs in places inhabited by minoritised ethnolinguistic groups on the so-called margins of Europe. I argue that the damage caused by the construction of dams and the consequences of resettlement affect not only the physical environment of local communities but also their intangible cultural heritage, threatening the survival of these minorities as distinct socio-cultural entities. Drawing on concepts of invisibilisation, wastelanding and solastalgia, I show how these processes disproportionately affect groups already positioned at the cultural periphery. Through a comparative analysis of two cases – the submergence of the Turkish-inhabited island of Ada Kaleh on the Danube in today’s Romania and of two Sorbian villages in Lusatia, Germany – the article explores how minority landscapes were discursively marginalised, rendered politically expendable and ultimately sacrificed to national projects of modernisation and energy infrastructure.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of European Studies, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Cultural StudiesSocial Sciences