The erasure erased. Political ecologies of absence and rexistence

We need an ontology of water absence, on the fabrication of and dwelling in vanishing water worlds. Such analytic requires a relational and scalar justice perspective on intertwined worlds of absence (scarcity), overabundance (flooding), and squandering (grabbing). Next, absence cannot be assumed but is a battlefield. Nothing, not even absence, is granted to the dispossessed. Even more, since modernist techno-political powers seek to ‘erase the erasure’ – from blue-washing damscapes to digital-twinning rivers to bulldozering genocide. This asks engaged scholars to expand our imagination beyond the visible, remember ourselves to crosspollinating academia-grassroots-activist alliances, and join modes of rexistence.

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Publication Details

Journal
Dialogues in Human Geography
Published
2026-05-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206261452194
Primary Topic
Water Governance and Infrastructure
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

The erasure erased. Political ecologies of absence and rexistence

Dialogues in Human Geography
Water Governance and Infrastructure
article

The erasure erased. Political ecologies of absence and rexistence

article en

Abstract

We need an ontology of water absence, on the fabrication of and dwelling in vanishing water worlds. Such analytic requires a relational and scalar justice perspective on intertwined worlds of absence (scarcity), overabundance (flooding), and squandering (grabbing). Next, absence cannot be assumed but is a battlefield. Nothing, not even absence, is granted to the dispossessed. Even more, since modernist techno-political powers seek to ‘erase the erasure’ – from blue-washing damscapes to digital-twinning rivers to bulldozering genocide. This asks engaged scholars to expand our imagination beyond the visible, remember ourselves to crosspollinating academia-grassroots-activist alliances, and join modes of rexistence.

Dialogues in Human Geography
University of Amsterdam (NL), Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Water Governance and Infrastructure
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