Abstract
Project E05 examines three historical and anthropological cases, taken respectively from Russia, Kazakhstan/Tajikistan and Australia. The aim is to show how large-scale salinization processes, caused by an irrigation-based agricultural regime strongly ascendant since the 1950s, have given rise first to threat diagnoses and then to coping strategies. The challenge will be to harness the assemblage approach to the task of analyzing a) the multidimensional interplay of forces (operant on a variety of levels: regional, national, transnational) and b) the manner in which ecological processes interact with technical methods, administrative practices, and cultural interpretations.
