Lucas Meneses Di Gioia Ferreira

Territories of Mediation: Shared Existences in the Brazilian Amazon

The Xingu River Basin sits within the Amazon Biome and integrates its deforestation belt. It is home to a multitude of endemic species and indigenous nations which are now threatened by the disruption of the river’s water pulse, caused by the construction and operation of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam.

The project explores the possibilities for mediation between natural and local-social systems with the demands of development brought by modernity to the river’s basin, specifically to the areas directly affected by reduced water flow caused by the dam.

This thesis questions the limits of urban practice in such territories, posing a question that possibly cannot be answered with the tools we currently have at our disposal. If our field intends to position itself within such territories, we must propose an alternative paradigm which can adequately territorialise cosmopolitics. Would Cosmourbanism be achievable?

More information

• Master thesis 'Territories of Mediation'