The Tempo of Solid Fluids: On River Ice, Permafrost, and Other Melting Matter in the Mackenzie Delta

Abstract

Seasonal and historical transformations of ice and permafrost suggest that the Mackenzie Delta in Arctic Canada can be understood as a solid fluid. The concerns and practices of delta inhabitants show that fluidity and solidity remain important attributes in a solid fluid delta. They are significant not as exclusive properties, but as relational qualities, in the context of particular human projects and activities. Indigenous philosophies of ‘the land’ and Henri Lefebvre’s notion of ‘tempo’ in Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (2004) may help to illustrate the predicament of living in a world that is solid and fluid rhythmically, and in relation to particular practices. Economic, political, sociocultural and physical transformations can all be experienced as both solid and fluid, depending on the degree to which they resonate with people’s purposes. In a world where everything seems to be changed and changing, solidity and fluidity may best be seen as indications of relative differences in tempo.

Remote Sensing of Multitemporal Functional Lake‐To‐Channel Connectivity and Implications for Water Movement Through the Mackenzie River Delta, Canada

“…However, Inuvialuit settlements began to move inland as early as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries CE. The two largest present‐day permanent settlements in the delta are Aklavik, founded in 1912 as a Hudson Bay trading post (Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute, 2016), and Inuvik founded in the late 1950s as a less flood‐prone alternative to Aklavik (“Inuvik,” 2020), both located on the boundaries between Inuvialuit and Gwich'in settlement areas (Krause, 2022).…”

Hydrosocial geographies: Cycles, spaces and spheres of concern

“…Fluxes of water and land shape lives and livelihoods in estuaries, deltas, wetlands and permafrost (Krause and Harris 2021). Krause (2022) develops the notion of 'solid fluids' to analyze seasonal changes of water/ice and mud/permafrost in the Mackenzie Delta in Arctic Canada to argue relative temporalities of solidity and fluidity shape Inuit relations and livelihoods (cf. Clark et al 2021).…”

El cuidado y lo común: Reflexiones sobre el sostenimiento cooperativo de la vida desde y más allá de lo humano

“…Así, prestar atención al tiempo materialmente producido del suelo, como un tiempo vivo, puede llevar a una ruptura de determinados tiempos ecológicos con los que la vida humana se relaciona habitualmente (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2019). Algo parecido refiere Krause (2022) en su análisis del paisaje del delta Mackenzie cuando propone la idea de pensar el cuidado del agua como un fluido sólido cuyos tiempos se atienden y responden transformando las actividades humanas para adaptarse a estos tiempos.…”

“…En esta oportunidad, busco poner a dialogar la reflexión teórica sobre la ética del cuidado y sus posibles expresiones desde y más allá de lo humano (Tronto, 1998;Fisher y Tronto, 1999;McLaren, 2018;Puig de la Bellacasa, 2019;Krause, 2022), la dimensión colectiva del cuidado (Casalini, 2020;Vega et al, 2018;García et al, 2020) y la discusión sobre lo común centrada en la reproducción de la vida (Federici, 2020;Gutiérrez, 2018;Caffentzis y Federici, 2015;Esteva y Guerrero, 2018;Singh, 2018;García-López et al, 2021). Considero que el intento preliminar de hacer conversar estas trayectorias teóricas puede entregar luces sobre los alcances y limitaciones conceptuales para imaginar ampliar formas de vivir juntos en la era del Antropoceno (McLaren, 2018).…”