waterways

a global history of canals, rivers and the people who built them

This project explores how the working practices of canal builders and the ideological practices of canal advocates have adapted to changing political agendas of imperial expansion, state-building and globalisation, 1760-present day.

At the core of waterways is an attempt to analyse the relationships that were made - and which are being remade - between specific systems of water management and those competing forms of 'knowing' that offer rival and complementary models to make sense of such work.