Abstract
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has undergone an apparent shift from an agency frequently accused of degrading environments to one that now embraces ecological restoration as a primary mission. Through a review of promotional films from the 1950s to the present, this paper assesses the changing ways in which the Corps and their partner resource management agencies represent their activities in the South Florida ecosystem, including the Everglades and Kissimmee River. I assess this paradigm shift in resource management from a feminist perspective illuminating continuities in depictions of science and technology-based ecological interventions. Based on this analysis I suggest that appeals to certainty of knowledge and technological control persist across time despite a shift in managerial ecology toward acknowledging imperfect knowledge and the unintended consequences of technological intervention.
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Film references
Waters of Destiny (late 1950s). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. State Archives of Florida: Tallahassee. V-106 DA046; S. 828 (25:50 minutes).
Flight into Oblivion (@ late 1960s). Central and Southern Flood Control District. Goodway Films (producer). State Archives of Florida: Tallahassee V-4 CA032; S. 828 (14:30 minutes).
Beyond Disaster (1972). Central and Southern Flood Control District. State Archives of Florida: Tallahassee V-17 DA 021; S. 828 (28:30 minutes).
Kissimmee —River of Dreams (1997). South Florida Water Management District: West Palm Beach (27:00 minutes).
Restoring the Everglades (@2000). South Florida Water Management District: West Palm Beach (13:00 minutes).
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O’Brien, W.E. Continuity in a changing environmental discourse: film depictions of Corps of Engineers projects in South Florida. GeoJournal 69, 135–149 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9087-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9087-7