Jeremy J Schmidt

For some time now I have been interested in why social scientists and humanities scholars pay so little attention to rivers that run dry. By length, these rivers are the most common on earth, and of course in arid and alpine areas they are even more the norm. Added to these concerns are ongoing effects of climate change, and the continued impacts of extraction from surface and groundwaters. Non-perennial rivers, in other words, are critical to understand scientifically and socially.

So, I’ve finally decided to put my interests into a project and to start researching non-perennial rivers. My first paper is now out. It is something between a review, a call to action, and an effort to push social scientists and humanities scholars to not conflate relations to rivers with relations to water…and this is especially important challenge given how often water’s material properties function in theoretical explanations (so many flows, eddies, and so on!).

Anyhow, it is open access at Environment and Planning E here, and there is a pdf below. All comments warmly received.