Chris Sneddon

Title

Professor

Department

Geography and Environmental Studies

Institution

Dartmouth College

d1188r6@dartmouth.edu

Education

PhD Geography, University of Minnesota
MS Resource Policy and Planning, University of Michigan

Research Interests

Environmental Politics Water Resource Development Water Governance

View all research interests

Biography

Chris Sneddon is a Professor in the Departments of Geography and Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. His research and teaching focus on environmental politics, the geopolitics of development, conflicts over water, the politics of scale, and the hydropolitics of the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia. His book—Concrete Revolution: The Bureau of Reclamation, Cold War Geopolitics and Large Dams (University of Chicago Press)—won the 2016 Meridian Book Award from the American Association of Geographers (AAG). His current research focuses on the political and cultural dimensions of dam removal and river restoration in the United States, the politics of knowledge production and circulation in the Mekong River basin, and emerging social conflicts over renewable energy initiatives. One of the central goals of his scholarship is to explore how humanity might imagine and strive towards nature-society relationships grounded in social justice and ecological flourishing.

Homepages

Contact Information

15 Fayerweather Dr., Dept. of Geography, Hanover, NH 03755, USA

6036460451

Research

Not mentioned yet.

Cloud List

Environmental Politics Water Resource Development Water Governance Global South Dam Removal, Dam Removals International Order Salmo Salar Mississippi River Delta River Restoration Environmental History Southern Africa Southern African Studies Mekong River Basin American Association Environmental State State Power Knowledge Production Developing Countries Global Geopolitics Transboundary Rivers Environmental Governance Epistemological Boundaries Political Borders International Perspective Cold War Large Dams California Los Angeles Fresh Water Mekong Region Watershed Scales Southeast Asia Sustainable Development Environmental Policy Historical Geography Human Environment Relations Political Ecology Scientific Knowledge Toronto Press Water Conflicts Capture Fisheries Political Economy Social Studies Technological Expertise Advanced Studies, Advanced Study Keynote Address Us Bureau Technical Knowledge Ecological Economics Human Geography Environmental Studies Environmental Security Participatory Governance Conservation Initiatives Case Studies, Case Study American Geographers Mekong Delta Graduate Colloquium American Academy Asian Studies Development Economics Development Issues Ecological Integrity Expert Group Urban Sustainability European Union Integrative Framework Regional Conflict

List of Publications (77)

In 2023

Drapier, L., Germaine, M-A., Lespez, L., Magilligan, F. J., & Sneddon C. 2023. Networks, coalitions and the contestation of dam removal across political and institutional scales in France and New England (USA). The Geographical Review. DOI: 10.1080/00167428.2021.1953382.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2023. Review of The Ideal River: How Control of Nature Shaped the International Order by Joanne Yao (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2022), The AAG Review of Books 11(3), 29-31.
Found on CV

In 2022

Snyder, H. T., Oyanedel, R., Sneddon, C., & Scheld, A. M. 2022. Attitudes and behaviors for understanding compliance in Greenland's Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fishery. Conservation Science and Practice 4(11). https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12775.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. S., Magilligan, F. J., & Fox, C. A. 2022. Peopling the environmental state: River restoration and state power. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2021.1913089.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2022. Review of The Place with No Edge: An Intimate History of People, Technology, and the Mississippi River Delta by Adam Mandelman (Baton Rouge, LSU Press, 2020), Water Alternatives https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/boh/item/301-edge.
Found on CV

In 2020

Holland, E.C., Lin, S., Sidaway, J.D., Das, P., Hughes, S., Mohammad, R., Murphy, A.B., Simone, A., Sneddon, C., Toal, G. and Koch, N., 2020. Reading Natalie Koch's The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca (2018). Political Geography 76: 102043.
Found on CV

Fox, C., and C. Sneddon. 2020. Beyond epistemological pluralism in environmental governance: making space for multiple ontologies in the Arctic and the Mekong River Basin. In S. O'Lear (ed.) A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics, 88-104. Edward Elgar.
Found on CV

In 2019

Gutierrez, G. M., Kelly, S., Cousins, J. J., & Sneddon, C. 2019. What Makes a Megaproject?: A Review of Global Hydropower Assemblages. Environment and Society, 10(1), 101-121.
Found on CV

Fox, C. A., and Sneddon, C. S. 2019. Political Borders, Epistemological Boundaries, and Contested Knowledges: Constructing Dams and Narratives in the Mekong River Basin. Water, 11(3), 413. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11030413.
Found on CV

The geopolitics of knowledge production and circulation in transboundary rivers: the case of the Mekong basin," Invited lecture at the Department of Geography, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 5 December 2019.
Found on CV

"Dams as technopolitical objects: Global Geopolitics and the transformation of the Mekong Basin," Invited lecture at Water Talks no. 5, Exploring Dam Politics: Rivalries, Power and Hope. The Water Hub, Geneva, Switzerland, 25 April 2019.
Found on CV

In 2018

Magilligan, F.J., Sneddon, C. S., and C. A. Fox. 2018. The sociogeomorphology of river restoration: dam removal and the politics of place. In M. Werner, J. Peck, R. Lave & B. Christophers (eds.) Doreen Massey: Critical Dialogues, pp. 261-276. New York: Columbia University Press. DOI:10.2307/j.ctv5cg810.23.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2018. Review of Water Governance Dynamics in the Mekong Region, Eds. D. Blake and L. Robbins (Selangor, Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2016) in Water Alternatives 11(1).
Found on CV

In 2017

Sneddon, C., Magilligan, F. J., & Fox, C. A. 2017. Science of the Dammed: Expertise and Knowledge Claims in Contested Dam Removals. Water Alternatives, 10(3):677-696.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C., Barraud, R., and M-A Germaine. 2017. Dam removals and river restoration in international perspective. Water Alternatives, 10(3):648-654.
Found on CV

Magilligan, F.J., Sneddon, C. S., and C. A. Fox. 2017. The social, historical, and institutional contingencies of dam removal. Environmental Management, DOI: 10.1007/s00267-017-0835-2.
Found on CV

In 2016

2016. River restoration by dam removal: Enhancing connectivity at watershed scales. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 4: 000108. doi: 0.12952/journal.elementa.000108.
Found on CV

Magilligan, F., Sneddon, C., and C. Fox. 2016. The Era of Big Dam Building: "It Ain't Over Till It's Over." In C. Ashcraft and Mayer, T. (eds) The Politics of Fresh Water: Access, Identity and Conflict. London: Routledge/Earthscan.
Found on CV

Fox, C., Magilligan, F., and C. Sneddon. 2016. "You kill the dam, you are killing a part of me": Dam removal and the environmental politics of river restoration. Geoforum 70:93-104.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2016. Review of Allied Power: Mobilizing Hydro-electricity during Canada's Second World War by Matthew Evenden (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2015), Journal of Historical Geography.
Found on CV

"'Water for Peace?' The Geopolitics of Developmentin the Mekong River Basin, 1956-2016," Invited lecture at Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 14
Found on CV

In 2015

Sneddon, C. 2015. Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2015. A Genealogy of the Basin: Scalar Politics and Identity in the Mekong River Basin. In: Norman, E., Cook, C., and A. Cohen (eds.) Negotiating Water Governance: Why the Politics of Scale Matter, 41-57. London: Ashgate.
Found on CV

"Transforming the Mekong: Scientific Knowledge and Geopolitical Change, 1955 to 2015," Invited presentation at Interdisciplinary Symposium on Water Goverancen, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA, 11 September 2015.
Found on CV

"Concrete Revolution: Cold War Geopolitics and the Dissemination of Large Dams," Invited presentation at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 17 April 2015.
Found on CV

In 2013

Harris, L., Goldin, J. and C. Sneddon (eds). 2013. Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scaricty, Marketization and Particpation. New York: Routledge.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2013. "Water, governance and hegemony." In Harris, L., Goldin, J. and C. Sneddon (eds) Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scarcity, Marketization and Participation. New York: Routledge, pp. 13-24.
Found on CV

Christopher S. Sneddon Sneddon, C., Harris, L. and J. Goldin. 2013. "Placing hegemony: Water governance concepts and their discontents." In Harris, L., Goldin, J. and C. Sneddon (eds) Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scarcity, Marketization and Participation. New York: Routledge, pp. 251-258.
Found on CV

Goldin, J., Sneddon, C. and L. Harris. 2013. "Introduction: Interrogating hegemonic discourses in water governance." In Harris, L., Goldin, J. and C. Sneddon (eds) Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South: Scarcity, Marketization and Participation. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-10.
Found on CV

"Concrete Revolution: Geopolitics, Large Dams, and Cold War, 1933-1975," Invited presentation at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, 9 December 2013.
Found on CV

'From the "Mekong Spirit" to "Our Mekong": Identity, Geopolitics and Technical Knowledge in the Making of a River Basin,' Invited presentation for Southeast Asia Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 3 May 2013.
Found on CV

In 2012

Christopher S. Sneddon Sneddon, C. 2012. The "Sinew of Development": Cold War geopolitics, technological expertise and river alteration in Southeast Asia, 1954-1975. Social Studies of Science 42(4):564- 590.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2012. Inland capture fisheries and large river systems: A political economy of Mekong fisheries. Journal of Agrarian Change 12(2/3):279-299.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2012. Water, geopolitics, and economic development in the conceptualization of a region. Eurasian Geography and Economics 53(1):143-160.
Found on CV

In 2011

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2011. The Cold War, the US Bureau of Reclamation and the technopolitics of river basin development, 1950-1970. Political Geography, 30(8):450-460.
Found on CV

In 2009

Sneddon, C. 2009. Human Geography and Environmental Studies. In Kitchin, R. and N. Thrift (eds) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume 3, pp. 558-564. Oxford: Elsevier.
Found on CV

In 2008

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2008. Struggles over dams as struggles for justice: the World Commission on Dams (WCD) and anti-dam campaigns in Thailand and Mozambique. Society and Natural Resources 21(7):625-640.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2008. River-basin politics and the rise of ecological and transnational democracy in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. Water Alternatives 1(1):66-88.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2008. Power, development and institutional change: participatory governance in the Lower Mekong basin. World Development 35(12):2161-2181.
Found on CV

In 2007

Fox. C. and C. Sneddon. 2007. Transboundary river basin agreements in the Mekong and Zambezi basins: Enhancing environmental security or securitizing the environment? International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 7(3):237-261.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2007. "Nature's" materiality and the circuitous paths of accumulation: dispossession of riverine fisheries in Cambodia. Antipode 39(1):167-193.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2007. Review of Locating Southeast Asia: Geographies of Knowledge and Politics of Space by Paul Kratoska, Remco Raben and Henk Schulte Nordholt, eds. (Singapore, University of Singapore, 2005), Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(2):462-464.
Found on CV

"Thailand: conflicts, politics and environment," Vermont High School Study Abroad Program, Montpelier, Vermont, 6 February 2007.
Found on CV

In 2006

Sneddon, C., Howarth, R. B. and R. B. Norgaard. 2006. Sustainable Development in a Post- Brundtland World. Ecological Economics 57:253-268.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. and C. Fox. 2006. Rethinking transboundary waters: a critical hydropolitics of the Mekong basin. Political Geography 25:181-202.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2006. Conservation initiatives and "transnationalization" in the Mekong River Basin. In: K. Zimmerer, ed., Globalization and New Geographies of Conservation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 191-211.
Found on CV

In 2005

Fox, C. and C. Sneddon. 2005. Flood pulses, international watercourse law, and common pool resources: a case study of the Mekong lowlands. Research Paper No. 2005/10. Helsinki, Finland: Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI) and United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics (UNU-WIDER).
Found on CV

Christopher S. Sneddon "Struggles over dams as struggles for justice: the World Commission on Dams (WCD) and anti- dam campaigns in Thailand and Mozambique," Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Mount Holyoke College, 17 November 2005.
Found on CV

"Fishing in Cambodia: the emergence of ecological democracy in Southeast Asia," Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Program, Faculty-Student Luncheon, Dartmouth College, 3 May 2005.
Found on CV

"Using literature outside the humanities," Comparative Literature Lunch Seminar, Reed Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 14 April 2005.
Found on CV

"The geopolitics of water: participation and power in the Mekong and Zambezi Basins, 1995- 2004," at the Graduate Assistant Student-Faculty Dinner, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 3 March 2005.
Found on CV

In 2004

"Reinventing the river basin: participation and power in the Mekong and Zambezi Basins, 1995-2004," Rockefeller Spring 2004 Faculty Fellow seminar series, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 25 May 2004.
Found on CV

In 2003

Sneddon, C. 2003. Reconfiguring scale and power: the Khong-Chi-Mun project in Northeast Thailand. Environment and Planning A 35:2229-2250.
Found on CV

Isaacman, A. and C. Sneddon. 2003. Portuguese colonial intervention, regional conflict and post-colonial amnesia: Cahora Bassa dam, Mozambique 1965-2002. Portuguese Studies Review 11(1):207-236.
Found on CV

Christopher S. Sneddon Glassman, J. and C. Sneddon. 2003. Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen as growth poles: regional industrial development in Thailand and its implications for urban sustainability. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 590(November 2003): 93-115.
Found on CV

"The Mekong River: Reconciling politics, conservation, and the ecological integrity of a river basin," invited lecture to the Department of Geography and Geology, Environmental Studies and Asian Studies, 16 April 2003, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
Found on CV

"Conservation initiatives and the politics of scale in the Mekong River Basin," invited lecture to the Department of Geography, 31 March 2003 University of Vermont, Burlington, VT.
Found on CV

In 2002

Sneddon, C. 2002. Altered rivers and scales of conflict: the case of Nam Phong basin, Northeast Thailand. Society and Natural Resources 15(8):725-742.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C., Harris, L., Dimitrov, R. and U. Ozesmi. 2002. Contested waters: conflict, scale and sustainability in aquatic socioecological systems. Society and Natural Resources 15 (8):663-676.
Found on CV

Isaacman, A. and C. Sneddon. 2002. Fanning the flames: a history of Cahora Bassa's role in southern African instability. World Rivers Review 16(6):6-.
Found on CV

"Pandas and Giant Catfishes: The Politics of Conservation in Southeast Asia," invited presentation for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Fall 2002 Faculty Fellow seminar series, 4
Found on CV

In 2001

Sneddon, C. and B. T. Nguyen. 2001. Politics, ecology and water: the Mekong Delta and the development of the Lower Mekong Basin. In: N. Adger, M. Kelly and Nguyen Huu Ninh, eds., Living with Environmental Change: Social Vulnerability and Resilience in Vietnam, New York: Routledge, pp. 234-262.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2001. Review of The Politics of Sustainable Development: Theory, Policy and Practice within the European Union by Susan Baker et al. (London, Routledge, 1997), Ethics, Place and Environment 4(3):266-270.
Found on CV

In 2000

Sneddon, C. 2000. 'Sustainability' in ecological economics, ecology and livelihoods: a review.
Found on CV

Isaacman, A. and C. Sneddon. 2000. Toward a social and environmental history of the building of Cahora Bassa Dam. Journal of Southern African Studies 26(4):597-632.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 2000. The interview process, parts 1-4. MacNews, newsletter of the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability and Justice, University of Minnesota, January-May 2000.
Found on CV

In 1998

Sneddon, C. 1998. Review of Donna Haraway, Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.
Found on CV

In 1997

FemaleManO _Meets_OncoMouseO : Feminism and Technoscience (New York, Routledge, 1997). Ethics, Place and Environment 1(2):258-259.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. 1997. Rethinking sustainability: toward an integrative framework. Working Paper Number 14, MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program Peace and International Cooperation, Minnesota-Stanford-Wisconsin Consortium Working Paper Series, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 1997.
Found on CV

In 1996

"Ebbing and flowing through Isaan: water, power and politics in Northeast Thailand," invited presentation at the Department of Geography Coffee Hour, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 7 September 1996.
Found on CV

In 1992

Sneddon, C. 1992. Low-cost technology in developing countries. GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network) Newsletter 5(4):3-.
Found on CV

In 1975

"Concrete Revolution: Cold War Geopolitics and the Proliferation of Large Dams, 1933- 1975," Keynote Address, Interdisciplinary Conference Experiments on Rivers: The Consequences of Large Dams, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, 11
Found on CV

"War, Peace, and the River Basin: Cold War Geopolitics and the Globalization of Large Dams, 1933-1975," Invited presentation at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 12
Found on CV

Unspecified

Magilligan, F., Graber, B. E., Nislow, K. H., Chipman, J. W., Sneddon, C., and C. Fox.
Found on CV

Progress in Human Geography 24(4): 521-549.
Found on CV

Sneddon, C. Forthcoming. Water Politics. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography [2nd Ed.] (Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons).
Found on CV

"Water resource development and the politics of scale in the Lower Mekong basin," invited lecture for the Graduate Colloquium, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA, 18
Found on CV

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Colleagues

Gisela Cairo

Dartmouth College

Emily Pridemore

Dartmouth College

Chelsey Canavan

Dartmouth College

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