Part II

Awesome Nature: Modernizing as an Archaeological Project

19th Century

-Nature As Harmful-
Modernization as Sanitation

London

● Accumulation of capital / luxury goods & monumentalization of

urban space → Increases in equality, uneven development, and
accumulation of environmental/social problems

● Most reformists (working class)

○ Fought against urbanization

● Enlightened reformers
○ Fought to improve public health & sanitation P 85
Modernization as Sanitation

a. London Cholera Outbreak

i. Simon’s theory: “Miasmatic” theory - Cholera (airborne disease -
contracted through foul air)
1. Allocation of public funds →removing the foul smell.

ii. Snow’s theory: Cholera (waterborne disease - contracted through

polluted water)
1. Allocation of public funds → a sewage network.

P 86
Modernization as Sanitation

● “Great Stink”
○ No social distinctions -- Foul for everyone
● Grand scale engineering projects

■ Construction of London Sewers

■ Extinguished “stink” & Cholera outbreak

P 86
 Young Athens Goal Through Geographical Imagination
● Reconnect to its past
○ By excavating trace of its classical history (displaying them in Athenian landscape)

● Disconnect from its (more recent) Ottoman past

● Promote the image as a beautiful, clean, rational, sanitized, Western city

P 92
Modernization as Sanitation - Athens

■ Very minimal funds in Athens

● Water supply & Sanitization = Major Issue → Most
important social/political issues

■ War Against Dust “A place that must be constantly washed”

- (Western View)

P 80 /95
 Modernizing as Connecting to the West
A Royal Garden in Athens

■ Water scarcity prevalent → Citizen protest

■ [Ground water for the Queen?] → Queen & Direct conflict with citizens

■ Garden remains today as the National Garden (And open to the public)

● Water Scarcity - Social and Political Problems: Conflict between water as use
value and water as a means to create symbolic value
■ Water as a means to create symbolic value: Royal Garden

P 97 / 98
National Garden
Connecting to a Classical Past - Athens

Hadrian’s Aqueduct

● Excavation & reconstruction of ancient Roman aqueduct - Solution to city’s water

problem.
i. Loan - selling water to individual households who could afford it
ii. Multiple loans later
1. Muddy and potentially unsuitable drinking water
iii. Larger loan
iv. Increase municipal taxation

● After half a century the project was suspended -

P 131
Hadrian’s Aqueduct
Modernization 19th Century
● London
○ More funding than Athens [Stemming from capitalist expansion]
○ Modern technological solutions
■ Sewage & Sanitation

● Athens
○ Minimal funds available
○ Most efforts / funds went towards the city’s ancient aqueduct
■ Modernization became an “archaeological project.”
● Athens still lacks an adequate supply of water and is entering the 20th century

● Western Cities
○ Successful sanitization in western cities
■ Allowed for urbanization / industrialization /capital investment → Expanding the Western
future
Tamed Nature: Late 20th Century: Tamed Nature as a
Source of Crisis

-Taming Nature-
Late 19th - Early 20th Century - Taming Nature

Greece
● Foreign loans (end of 19th century)
○ Western capital → prioritization of railway / communication infrastructures
■ Import foreign expertise / technology

● “Selective Modernization”: Colonies modernizing in a sense (railways, roads, ect.) while

remaining underdeveloped in many other respects.

● Thriving modern railway

● Lacked adequate water supply and sanitation
● Lack of funding for water projects supports

P 113
Late 19th - Early 20th Century - Taming Nature
● Water supply / Irrigation projects
○ Yeild no money or symbolic capital
■ Undesirable investment

● Greek legislation allowed the formation of equity-based companies

○ Large number for companies (formed by foreign capital; involved in
main Greek banks [shareholding]
○ Economic instrument with social, political, economic reforms
■ Allowed for large utility infrastructure projects in Greece

P 141
Dams As Symbols of Modernization - Marathon Dam

● Choice of the location & morphology of construction embodied

○ Greece’s peculiar modernization process

● New era of modernity

○ Began perceiving water as an element that could be manipulated

● Beginning of a socio-economic process

○ The city's footprint expanded- nature became increasingly separated from
the city
P 140-141
Developing An Hydrocephalus Athens

● Marathon lake reaches its lowest level

○ Construction of new aqueduct (looking for solutions outside of
Athens)
○ Mornos overflowed (1985)
■ Athens has water -- after a century of water shortages

● Taming of water after centuries without

○ Yet, there are roblem ahead (in next section)
P 133
Late 20th Century: Tamed Nature as a Source of Crisis
Late 20th Century: Tamed Nature as a Source of Crisis
● London
○ Water sector underwent total restructuring and privatization
■ Water Privatization → Public good → Private service = Water service as private
enterprise
■ Failure to repair water systems broughtabout media scrutiny & Public outcry
● Cost Efficiency? → Lack of resources = water-loss
● Similar practice of privatization / increased prices (As Athens; next slides)

● Athens
○ Overflow to Drought Crisis to Water Scarcity

P 146
Late 20th - 21st Centuries- Crisis, Water Use and Nature
● Athens
○ Nature’s crisis - a source of direct profit
○ The drought in Athens
■ “Scarce = valuable = expensive”
● Increase in water’s exchange value was an inevitable social response to a
natural phenomenon

● Political Crisis with a Natural Crisis (drought)

○ Let Emergency Proposals
 Water Company Announces:
“170 Days of Water”
● Announcement sparked a threat
○ To the domestic comfort, challenging the naturalized character of water supply.

● Emergency Proposals
1. Aimed to reduce consumption: raising price of water between 105% and 338%
a. Water bills: to be raised 40% -140%
b. Proposal 1 = Unsuccessful
i. Yet, succeeded in forging public to accept water as economic resource & a
valuable commodity

2. Construction of Evinos Dam

a. Initially unwelcome - but threat of dry taps and increased water prices was
justification
b. Unsuccessful completion
P 153
 New Proposal - Importing Water (Lake Trihonida);
Scandal
● Take water from the Lake [Yliki]
○ (by private companies; who have the right to sell it)
○ Set at double the price the consumer paid for it.

● Emergency Acts: banned the appropriation of water from lakes/ rivers

○ A higher price increased remained

● The construction of the new aqueduct at the Marathon

P 141
Late 20th - 21st Centuries- Crisis, Water Use and Nature
Athens

● Privatization and Economic Incentives

○ Focusing on Profit prioritization → Secondary Social &
Environmental Concerns

■ Addressed through specific regulatory regimes

■ Never through incentive of the market itself
Late 20th - 21st Centuries- Crisis, Water Use and Nature
London & Athens

● “Utility patchwork”
○ “An entangled network of regulator and private operations, which depletes
public resources while not allowing for reinvestment of profits in public
services. Such a utility patchwork stands in stark contrast to modernity's
dream for a highly rational, organized, controlled and functional urban
space.” (Graham & Marvin)

P. 201
Overall Summary of Full Text