SOCIOCULTURAL IMAGINARIES OF HYDROELECTRICITY IN SOUTH AMERICA, 1945-1970

Abstract

Th is article analyzes the role that diff erent types of imaginaries played in the understanding of and support for hydroelectricity in South America during the early decades of the Cold War. Th e central argument is that, beyond the promotion and positive perception of this type of public works as an inexpensive source of energy needed to fuel industrial development and modernization, an understudied but signifi cant sociocultural structure of support drove hydroelectric projects in diff erent South American countries. Th is structure emerged from how society imagined and valued hydroelectric technology. Th e article analyzes imaginaries related to the control of nature for the benefi t of humans, technological nationalism, and the consumption of electricity in specifi c projects carried out in Chile, Colombia, and Perú.