Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the hydrographic mapping of the Italian watercourses revealed that water access, distribution, and use were contended both conceptually and practically. On one hand, local communities and authorities claimed for centuries of expertise in water management. In their narratives, water appeared as the product of historically layered rules and rights, of a complex negotiation between the pre-Unitarian Italian states and local communities. On the other hand, the engineers of the Hydraulic Department of the Ministry of Agriculture aimed at presenting water as a ‘natural’ element with its own internal operating rules which were independent by the social context. However, in the practical realization of engineering projects the historical, social context of water shaped purposes, measures and calculations of engineering. The focus in this paper is on a contest between two engineering projects for the concession of water from the River Aniene in the Roman area in the period 1884-1892. Engineering projects were adjusted during the period analyzed in order to cope with the attacks of the rivals and with the concerns of the local administration and population. The purpose of the paper is to provide analytical insight on how engineering design and practice were outputs of a complex process, which influenced even the most sacred realm of engineers, those of numbers and measurements. This raises questions about the claim of engineers to being the agents of a disembodied form of reason, instead of interested political actors.