Landscapes of Water and Concrete: Images, Infrastructures and Ghosts of the Francoist Hydraulic Paradigm

Abstract

The urbanization of nature driven by Francoist development policies was based on a productivist and extractivist vision of natural resources, particularly water. A paradigmatic outcome of these policies was the construction of large dams, primarily designed to supply hydroelectric power to industrial hubs. Beyond their material function, these infrastructures were imbued with strong symbolic value, standing as icons of modernity and national wealth. Their visual representation played a key role in consolidating an aesthetic of progress that legitimized territorial intervention as a technical and civilizing feat. Through a historical and critical analysis of some of the images that shaped this imaginary, this text aims to challenge the hegemonic discourses of hydraulic capitalism, exposing its material consequences and the dynamics of dispossession that underpinned it.