Troubled waters of hegemony

This chapter focuses on a comparison of state-built large dams and small-scale hydropower plants (HPPs) constructed by private firms in Turkey, by situating them within the broader historical dynamic between state and society via the Gramscian concept of hegemony. It argues that while dams could animate modernisation and development as collective interest on which the Turkish state’s hegemonic project is built on, HPPs failed to do so and thus were widely opposed. The argument is illustrated by findings from an extensive field study conducted in Artvin, a province in the north-eastern corner of Anatolia.