End : 13 October 2026 à 16:00
The RUE Research Group is organising a seminar on 13 October 2026 in Room B235 of the Bienvenüe Building. Sophie Tabouret (CIRED-EHESS) will present “The technical imaginaries of mega-reservoirs: What the visibility of water consumption brings about.”
“Substitute reservoirs – also known as ‘mega-basins’ by groups opposed to their construction – were first built in the 2000s in the areas surrounding the Poitevin Marshes. These facilities provide a technical solution for maintaining river flow and enabling farmers to irrigate their fields in summer.
In a 2023 article published in Carnets du Paysage, Alexis Pernet, a landscape architect working in this region, explains that the protests have grown to such a scale partly because these storage facilities highlight the use of water resources for agriculture. They are “visible, all too visible” (Pernet 2023). I propose to examine this process. How can we define this ‘highlighting’ and what are its effects? Whilst studies on infrastructure have mainly focused on the ‘reopening of black boxes’ (Bowker 1994), what happens when, conversely, it is the infrastructure itself, whilst in operation, that makes the use of a resource visible?”
Photo: Mauzé Reservoir on the River Mignon (79), June 2024 (© Sophie Tabouret)
