In the Shadow of the Seawall: Coastal Injustice and the Dilemma of Placekeeping"In the Shadow of the Seawall journeys to the edge of the sea to understand the existential dilemma of seawalls alongside struggles for resilience and adaptation. In coastal management debates, seawalls are a deeply contested subject between those in favor of hard structures for mitigating the impacts of sea change and those who advocate measures modeled on natural processes. Summer Gray argues that both approaches involve limited notions of resilience that undermine movements for social and climate justice, and introduces the concept of placekeeping-the struggle to resist colonizing practices of displacement-as a justice-oriented framework for addressing the global dangers of coastal disruption. Drawing on a mix of ethnographic observation, interviews, and archival research, Gray shows how competing logics of adaptation play out on the ground in Guyana and the Maldives-to reveal how seawalls are entrenched in relationships of power and entangled in processes of making and keeping place"-- |
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Anthropocene areas artificial islands Atoll British Guiana building capitalism climate adaptation climate change Climate Change Adaptation climate justice coast Coastal Engineering coastal protection coastal vulnerability coastline colonial communities concrete seawalls construction context coral cultural Dhivehi disaster Dutch ecological economic ecosystems efforts emerged environment environmental justice erosion flood future Gayoom Georgetown global Global South GMRP green Guyana Guyanese Heritage of Coastal History and Heritage History of Coastal Hulhumalé human inequality infrastructure injustice International Jagan land reclamation landscape Maldives Maldivian Malé managed retreat mangrove mangrove forests mangrove restoration ment modern Naomi Klein Nasheed Nasheed's natural negotiated Ocean placekeeping planters political population consolidation reefs regeneration relocation resilience riprap Rodney sea change sea defense sea level rise Sea Wall seawalls shift shore shoreline small island social stay in place structures struggle Tetrapods tion tourism tsunami uneven development University Press urban Vreed en Hoop Walter Rodney waves York