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Arne Rieber

@arnerieber.bsky.social
515 followers 704 following 56 posts

Postdoctoral Researcher & Lecturer @UniBonn Geography / interested in economic geography, political economy, political ecology, industrial policy, infrastructure and hydropolitics

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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Thanks to my colleagues Yollanda Korir and Benson Nyaga for the great time together!
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
While from an environmental justice perspective the right or wrong of this question seems clear, various forms of framing, characterisation and legal interventions are used to shift claims from unjust to credible to legitimate. #geosky #politicalecology
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Just concluded two more weeks of fieldwork at the Masinga Dam reservoir in Kenya. In this stay we explored the cascading claims on land on the shores of Masinga Dam. We investigated how different actors, communities and individuals lay claim to ownership of or access to the riverine lands.
Masinga Dam SpillwayThe research team crossing Masinga Dam on a boat Gitaru Dam Wall on Tana RiverIrrigated farms at the shores of the Masinga Dam reservoir
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CRC-TRR 228 Future Rural Africa @crctrr228.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Vacancy: We are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher / Curator (100%) (f/m/d) for our exhibition project "Negotiating African Futures" @unibonn.bsky.social @futuriumd.bsky.social. More➡️ crc-trr228.de/call-for-app...
crc-trr228.de
Call for Applications: Postdoctoral Researcher / Curator - Collaborative Research Center TRR 228
The Department of Geography at the University of Bonn and Futurium are partnering on the Z05 project “Negotiating African Futures: an exhibition project” of
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Hey #geosky kindly share this CfP for this years RGS-IBG conference 🙂 @theobromin.bsky.social and myself are hosting a session on infrastructure, the politics of deception and breaking the future! Deadline for submission is February 20!
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
‼️Two open ECR positions in Economic Geohraphy based at @giubresearch.bsky.social @unibonn.bsky.social as part of the Collaborative Research Center ‚Future Rural Africa‘. Project C02 investigates industrial development visions in the context of renewables in 🇰🇪 crc-trr228.de/available-po...
crc-trr228.de
Available Positions for Third Funding Phase - Collaborative Research Center TRR 228
We are pleased that our research project has received funding for a third project phase (2026-2029).
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Zali Fung @zalifung.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
My essay on “slow resistance” to long-proposed hydropower dams & diversions in the Salween River Basin is out with @newmandala.bsky.social ! It’s based on my PhD research & an article co-authored with @drvanessalamb.bsky.social in Antipode. www.newmandala.org/slow-resista...
newmandala.org
“Slow resistance” in the Salween River Basin - New Mandala
Grassroots activism gums up the wheels of hydro-development
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
One of the articles I enjoyed reading the most over the last years. Really cool to see it being accessible to a wider audience. Congrats!
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
‼️Two open ECR positions in Economic Geohraphy based at @giubresearch.bsky.social @unibonn.bsky.social as part of the Collaborative Research Center ‚Future Rural Africa‘. Project C02 investigates industrial development visions in the context of renewables in 🇰🇪 crc-trr228.de/available-po...
crc-trr228.de
Available Positions for Third Funding Phase - Collaborative Research Center TRR 228
We are pleased that our research project has received funding for a third project phase (2026-2029).
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Department of Geography Bonn @giubresearch.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Congratulations to Dr. @arnerieber.bsky.social! Arne received the Dr. Hohmann Award 2025 by the Cologne Geographical Society @unicologne.bsky.social for his research project on "German Industrial Transformation: Geoeconomy and the Role of the State in the Chemical Industry". tinyurl.com/mr3upmvd
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Theo @theobromin.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Our Intervention on the limitation of free speech at German Universities, based on experiences with organising pro-Palestinian events. gh.copernicus.org/articles/80/...
gh.copernicus.org
Trapdoors: Palestine solidarity and the authoritarian potential of invisible academic bureaucracies
Abstract. In this intervention, we raise concerns about the latent authoritarian potential of academic bureaucracies to restrict or even prohibit spaces for critical exchange on highly politicized iss...
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
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Department of Geography Bonn @giubresearch.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
#mittwochsimGIUB Tomorrow, Prof. Dr. Andrew Cumbers (@uofglasgow.bsky.social | Visiting Professor @unibonn.bsky.social) will give a talk on "The Future of the Public and the Struggle for the Democratic Economy" When? Nov. 18, 5:15pm Where? Lecture Hall, Dept. of Geography #geosky #geography
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Jean-François Bonnefon @jfbonnefon.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
As seen in the release notes of ChatGPT Atlas. Cool cool cool
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
‼️There's a PhD or Postdoc position open in my working group ‼️Let's be colleagues 🥹 Economic Geography in Bonn Application deadline 22 November 2025 Due to teaching obligations, fluency in German is required
Job advertisement from the University of Bonn, Department of Geography, for a research assistant position
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
It also showed that students are using LLMs for tasks that GenAI cannot and should never handle for them (e.g. coding). We therefore have to be much more active in guiding which tools are potentially helpful and which are not. Which means we as lecturers have to monitor the developments
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Today's session on the responsible use of AI in geography for incoming Master's students showed that: a) students are using AI, and b) they would like much clearer guidelines (and guidance). Simply telling them not to use it because it's evil will not be sufficient.
Menti with the question What questions would you like to have answered today Menti with the question what have you used AI for in your studies
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Theo @theobromin.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Call for Abstracts - AAG 2026 | SF Deadline: October 23rd Join my Panel at next year's AAG conference on "Infrastructure Monsters and the Specter of Sabotage". We talkin' horror stories, queer geography, ghosts, Marx' specters, ruination, sabotage, and much more! @geographers.bsky.social #GeoSky
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
First day in my new position 🎉 Excited to join the economic geography group at @giubresearch.bsky.social as a postdoctoral researcher. Moving from political ecology to political economy, in the next years I will focus on the role of the state in the geoeconomy and industry policy.
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Department of Geography Bonn @giubresearch.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Congrats to @arnerieber.bsky.social who completed his dissertation this summer! 🎉 Arne worked in @crctrr228.bsky.social on on future-making in large-scale hydraulic infrastructure projects in East Africa. Read more: bonndoc.ulb.uni-bonn.de/xmlui/handle... #geosky #PoliticalEcology #geography
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Unfortunately, this view of the GGW is rather outdated. It was never implemented on a large scale, nor did it ever fulfil its promise of being participatory or adapted to the needs of local ecosystems. The green jobs narrative in particular has been debunked www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
annualreviews.org
Great Green Walls: Hype, Myth, and Science | Annual Reviews
Visions of planting walls of trees to block the expansion of the desert have long been promoted but never realized. The green wall myth persists today even though it is premised on outdated understand...
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Wear The Peace @wearthepeace.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
A man on the streets of the UK is asked about the “problem of immigration” and dismantles talking points with ease.
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Long version on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
linkedin.com
In late 2022, the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported that the new High Grand Falls Dam would soon irrigate around 400,000 hectares of land and generate 1 GW of electricity for the Kenyan… | Dr. Ar...
In late 2022, the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported that the new High Grand Falls Dam would soon irrigate around 400,000 hectares of land and generate 1 GW of electricity for the Kenyan grid. How...
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
The case highlights the immense power and violence of infrastructural promises made on large poltical stages. This practice must be challenged and called out, as the harm caused by these political stunts has severe material and immaterial consequences through altering future visions, fears and hope
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
In 2022 the High Grand Falls Dam was announced by UK and Kenyan governements, to irrigate 400,000ha and produce 1 GW. By 2025 it was cancelled again. What remained in the region was no material change, but the violence of broken promises impacting future-making and everyday actions of those affected
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Rachel Savage @rachelmsavage.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
"The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death."
theguardian.com
Israel blocking aid from Gaza is creating ‘chaos and death’, say 111 humanitarian groups
Letter signed by agencies including Doctors Without Borders condemn Israeli military attacks on Palestinians
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Very happy and proud to share that today I’ve successfully defended my dissertation. So grateful to the @unibonn.bsky.social @giubresearch.bsky.social @crctrr228.bsky.social, my supervisors, reviewers and wonderful colleagues in Bonn who guided and supported me over the last three years!
Photo of myself holding my dissertation in front of a screen that shows the title page of my Defense presentation. Title: „The political ecology of hydraulic infrastructure in Kenya: claim-making and contestations in hydrosocial spaces“
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Area @areajournal.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
📢June Issue of Area📢 This latest issue pulls together the fully #OpenAccess 'Rivers as Borders' Special Section alongside papers on topics including de-development, AI, and diary methods. Read all the papers here: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14754762... #geosky
A graphic showing the title page of Area on a black background with a large 'A' on the right hand page. On the left hand page are seven tiles with the names of papers in a Special Section titled 'Rivers as Borders'. The papers are: 
1) Rivers as borders? Navigating in-between the tensions of water-state-society geographies
Rebekka Kanesu,  Vanessa Lamb,  Eva McGrath
2) Median line: A century of border violence and the alluvial geopolitics of the Evros/Meriç/Maritsa River border
Ifor Duncan,  Stefanos Levidis
3) Slow violence on the Yarmouk River: Encounters from the river-border environments
Muna Dajani
4) Migrating sands: Refocusing transboundary flows from water to sediment
C. R. Hackney
5) Crossing riverborderscapes and a view from in-between: Passenger ferries in South West England
Eva McGrath,  Richard Yarwood,  Nichola Harmer
6) Liquid lines: Exploring the Moselle River between France, Luxembourg and Germany
Rebekka Kanesu
7) Caring for the river-border: Struggles and opportunities along the Salween River-border
Vanessa LambA graphic showing the title page of Area on a black background with a large 'A' on the right hand page. On the left hand page are eight tiles with the names of papers in the issue. The papers are: 
1) On undevelopment and de-development: A geographical critique on perpetual growth and resource-based accumulation
Gertjan Wijburg
2) Place, institutional spatiality, and the localisation of financial calculative practices
Leqian Yu
3) Claim-making in hydrosocial spaces: The temporality of displacement around Kenya's Masinga Dam reservoir
Arne Rieber,  Benson Nyaga
4) Deliberative approaches to the climate crisis: Adapting Climathons for rural communities
Philippa Simmonds,  Damian Maye,  Julie Ingram,  Abigail Gardner,  Sofia Raseta
5) Ethnographic fingerprints: Examining co-participation, positionality, and interpersonal relationships in diary method
Julius Baker
6) A whole island approach to scoping renewable energy sites and yields
Ben Watt,  Robert L. Wilby
7) Past, present, future: The RGS-IBG political geography research group within British political geography
Daniel Hammett
8) Visualising an undergraduate geography field class using generative AI: Intent, expectations and surprises about the racial depiction of students
Terence Day,  James Esson
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Theo @theobromin.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Can sabotage be an act of care? A way to build the future? In our new @antipodeonline.bsky.social article, Eric Kioko & I introduce the Sabotage Matrix, a tool to rethink infrastructure sabotage as both destructive and constructive. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A 2x2 matrix titled "Sabotage Matrix", showing the material and immaterial effects of infrastructure sabotage, divided into destructive (left) and constructive (right) axes.

Top-left (Q1): Labeled "Destructive material effects" with a photo of a partially dismantled dam.

Top-right (Q2): Labeled "Constructive material effects" with a photo of a dislodged water pipe on dry earth.

Bottom-left (Q3): Labeled "Destructive ideational effects", with the quote: "We are saying [sabotage] is good, because it has made the things that were in darkness to come into the light."

Bottom-right (Q4): Labeled "Constructive ideational effects", with the quote: "The reason for us being included, it is because of the destructions they have seen."

The vertical axis is labeled "Material" (top) and "Immaterial" (bottom), and the horizontal axis is labeled "Destructive" (left) and "Constructive" (right).
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Esteve Corbera @estevecorbera.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) Conference in Barcelona, June 2026. Help us disseminate the event and submit your articles, please! @icta-uab.bsky.social @pollenetwork.bsky.social pollenpoliticalecology.network/pollen-2026/
pollenpoliticalecology.network
POLLEN Conference 2026 - POLLEN
To learn more about our rational and purposes, then please look at this page , or download this document. If would like to participate then the first step is to propose a panel, or some other contribu...
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Vielen Dank super spannend! Ich fände es teilweise noch interessant besser zu beleuchten was die Motive der Teams sind. Also die etwas übergeordnete Taktik. Warum war (nur als Beispiel) ein Visma Fahrer ewig lange vorne im Wind (3-4km vor Ziel) obwohl Yates bestenfalls an 20. Position war?
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Hey Bonn/Cologne people. The KritGeo group at our department is hosting an event next week that speaks for itself in terms of urgency or relevance.
Climate (In-)Justice: The Coloniality of the Climate Crisis. panel discussion with Rose Wanjiku, Lakshmi Thevasagayam & Sara Bahadori. 22 May 2025, 05.30 pm. Geographisches Institut Bonn, Alfred-Philippson Lecture Hall, Meckenheimer Alee 166, 53115 Bonn
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Alida Cantor @alidacantor.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Over the past weeks I've had 2 major grants terminated, from EPA and NSF. Over $1 million of funding for human-enviro geography research lost. These terminations have negative impacts for myself, my graduate students, my university, community partners, and society. #withoutNSF #geosky 1/9 🧪
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Area @areajournal.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
#OA paper in Area: 'Claim-making in hydrosocial spaces: The temporality of displacement around Kenya's Masinga Dam reservoir' by @arnerieber.bsky.social & Benson Nyaga This paper explores how historical injustices shape contemporary contestations over land & water rights. doi.org/10.1111/area...
doi.org
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
The article examines the contested hydrosocial territory of the Masinga Dam reservoir in Kenya, focusing on how historical injustices, infrastructural temporalities, and spatial reconfigurations shap...
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CRC-TRR 228 Future Rural Africa @crctrr228.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Future Rural Africa Public Lecture: How does wealth accumulate in African cities & beyond? Who owns what, who gets what, and why? @econgeo.bsky.social unpacks these questions, linking local & global economies. 📅 7 April 2025 🕓 16:00 - 17:30 (CEST) More ➡️ crc-trr228.de/crc-trr-publ...
crc-trr228.de
CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Stefan Ouma - Collaborative Research Center TRR 228
Mon | April 7th, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  (CEST)
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CRC-TRR 228 Future Rural Africa @crctrr228.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
New Publication! @theobromin.bsky.social & Detlef Müller-Mahn explore how labor shapes future-making in East African infrastructure projects. 📰➡️https://crc-trr228.de/new-publication-how-labour-has-the-potential-to-make-marginalised-futures-visible-and-real/
crc-trr228.de
New Publication: How Labour has the Potential to Make Marginalised Futures Visible and Real - Collaborative Research Center TRR 228
In this recent publication, researchers Theo Aalders and Detlef Müller-Mahn (Project C03 Green Futures) explore how labor shapes future-making in East African
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
cc/ @crctrr228.bsky.social @giubresearch.bsky.social @theobromin.bsky.social
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Really happy to see our article in JPE! In it, we discuss the 'non-economy of anticipation', a double vision in the construction phase of infrastructure, where future promises collide with the actual realities of implementation. We show how this leads to apathy and infrastructural violence.
Screenshot of the article page on the website of Journal of Political Ecology
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Hanna Kienzler @hannakienzler.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Politicians in Berlin, @kaiwegner.bsky.social & Ina Czyborra have pressured the FU Berlin to cancel Albanese's & Weizman's lecture. @christinebinzel.bsky.social, @michaelbarenboim.bsky.social and I condemn this in the strongest terms. Below our letters to the politicians in EN & DE, plus a 🧵 1/4
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CRC-TRR 228 Future Rural Africa @crctrr228.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Thank you @sebhaug.bsky.social from @idos-research.bsky.social for your contributions in our public lecture series today! Stay tuned for more lectures: ➡️ crc-trr228.de/crc-lecture-...
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Josh Budlender @joshbudlender.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
So obvious that it feels absurd to even engage with this, but some statistics re the extreme economic position of white South Africans, in one of the most unequal countries in the world:
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Wenn Sie dem Ganzen aus Empörung mehr Reichweite verschaffen erreichen Populisten doch genau ihr Ziel?
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Ich verstehe nicht ganz, warum das hier geteilt werden muss, vor allem, wenn es nicht einer Einordnung dient. Inhaltlich haben wir das heute schon von Merz gehört, also an sich nichts Neues. Und so bekommt die Aussage einfach nur eine größere Reichweite, der Erkenntnisgewinn ist aber gleich null.
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GEW – Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft @gew.de · 30/01/2025
Die gestrige Abstimmung im Bundestag markiert eine Zäsur. „Wir sind erschüttert über das Vorgehen der CDU/CSU-Fraktion, mit Unterstützung der AfD die demokratischen Grundwerte mit Füßen zu treten.“ #NoAFD #Bundestagswahl #BTW25 #BlueLZ #BlueKita
Demokratische Prozesse machen aus Faschisten keine DemkratenWir sind schüttert über das Vorhaben der CDU/CSU!Die Demokratie ist unsere beste Verbündete, Solidarität unsere Stärke.Am 23.2.2025 kannst du deine Wahl treffen!
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
What we do find out is that Ecosia apparently owns or leases land in Ethiopia and that land is nature 👏
Photo of two men with the subtitle 'Farmers agree to keep their cattle away from our sites, so that nature can regenerate'
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Oh I love these! Political communication at its best. The one photo taken in the rainy season, the other taken in the dry season. I mean how could a month matter in a semi-arid area? The link in the post takes you nowhere and when we research Ecosia activities in Ethiopia we get absolutely nothing.
Screenshot of a post by Ecosia on LinkedIn showing 2 photos of a project area where they planted '30,000 trees'. The one taken in October 2013 looks very dry, the other in September 2023 looks nice and green.
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
@crctrr228.bsky.social @giubresearch.bsky.social
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Benson Nyaga and I had done research around the Masinga dam in Kenya in the 1980s to find out about displacement, and quickly realised that this was not a single historical event, but an ongoing struggle for justice. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 2/2
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Claim‐making in hydrosocial spaces: The temporality of displacement around Kenya's Masinga Dam reservoir
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Arne Rieber @arnerieber.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Claim-making in hydrosocial spaces. We have a new article in Area discussing the temporality of displacement! Using the heuristic of 'time knots', we discuss in the article how 'legal forum shopping' is being used by government institutions to make claims on dam reservoirs and adjacent lands. 1/2
The cover page of the article in the journal Area
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