The essay examines local resistance to the New Deal rural electrification program in the United States before World War II as a crucial aspect of socio-technical change.
In his paper, Charles C. Mueller sheds light on the economics of survival, a branch of ecological economics that stresses the preservation of the opportunities of future generations over an extended time horizon.
The paper addresses various ways that water is constructed as “dangerous,” whether because there is too much (floods), too little (droughts), or because it is polluted. Mauch emphasizes that although water catastrophes have a natural origin, their effects are primarily social.
