Multispecies Rivers: Situated Practices and Translocal Movements for River Justice

This thesis attends to how power and politics operate across species boundaries in river territories, binding human and non-human beings (e.g., animals, plants, rivers themselves) in complex relationships of (in)justice; inclusion; exclusion; and (mis)representation. It addresses the overarching research question: how can the notion of multispecies justice help to conceptualise and support socio-environmental practices for river defence, conservation, and restoration in contested hydrosocial territories? The thesis analyses growing resistance to processes of river commodification and pollution by (trans)local movements for river justice that have made the protection and inclusion of non-human species central demands of their struggles. The analysed cases of the Piatúa river in Ecuador, and the Grensmaas (a section of the Dutch river Maas) in the Netherlands illustrate the politics and practices through which multispecies justice is advanced (or not) in river territories.