Agir avec les territoires cyborgs. Héritage(s) et projet(s) à l’heure de l’anthropocène
Abstract
The Anthropocene framework has reshaped urban studies by revealing the infrastructural, metabolic and ecological dimensions of urbanization. It redirects attention to “strong” and “weak” (infra)structures (Vigano, 2023; Roseaux, 2025), planetary interdependencies (Brenner, Katsikis, 2020) and new cartographic methods, positioning heritage at the core of Anthropocene urbanism and prompting reflection on how to inherit and represent hybrid and more-than-human cyborg territories (Swyngedouw, 1996, 2006; Braun, 2005; Gandy, 2005). This also entails addressing the political implications of such heritage for sustainable territorial planning and governance. The Grenoble plain offers a paradigmatic case. Since the late seventeenth century, two imaginaries—draining land and making water available—have guided its transformation from swamp to polder and ultimately into a “water tower.” Supported by “strong” hydraulic infrastructures, the floodplain was dammed, drained and urbanized as major systems harnessing local aquifers, by the late nineteenth century, enabled large-scale water mobilization for industry and domestic use (Brochet, 2023). Water thus became “modern” (Linton, 2011): abstracted, homogenized and subordinated to urban and economic development. This hydraulic order fostered a Large Technical Systems urbanism (Lopez, 2018) that rendered “weak” aquatic structures—groundwater, torrents, wetlands—invisible (Ambrosino, Brochet, 2025). In the current context of Alpine warming, intensified droughts, and recurrent flooding (Blanc, 2022), emerging imaginaries of “rehydrating the earth” (Morizot, Husky, 2024) challenge inherited separations between land and water, calling for a reconceptualization of water infrastructures as socio-political interfaces with the living (Roseau, 2025). Our research project (POPSU Transitions) explores how this cyborg hydrosocial territory (Boelens et al., 2016) might be reimagined through a Water Atlas, inspired by Feral Atlas (Tsing et al., 2020) and Petrochemical America (Misrach, Orff, 2023). Combining maps, photographs and situated narratives, the Atlas conducts a critical inquiry into the Anthropocene heritage. It examines how infrastructures that once separated water from land might now be rendered porous to their environments. Through a fine-grained characterization of water-related infrastructures and Grenoble’s hydrosocial metabolism, the project aims to delineate potential pathways of adaptation for cyborg territories.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{ambrosino2026agir,
title = {{Agir avec les territoires cyborgs. Héritage(s) et projet(s) à l’heure de l’anthropocène}},
author = {Charles Ambrosino and Antoine Brochet},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
url = {https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05755747v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Agir avec les territoires cyborgs. Héritage(s) et projet(s) à l’heure de l’anthropocène
AU - Charles Ambrosino
AU - Antoine Brochet
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/19
PB - HAL
UR - https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05755747v1
AB - The Anthropocene framework has reshaped urban studies by revealing the infrastructural, metabolic and ecological dimensions of urbanization. It redirects attention to “strong” and “weak” (infra)structures (Vigano, 2023; Roseaux, 2025), planetary interdependencies (Brenner, Katsikis, 2020) and new cartographic methods, positioning heritage at the core of Anthropocene urbanism and prompting reflection on how to inherit and represent hybrid and more-than-human cyborg territories (Swyngedouw, 1996, 2006; Braun, 2005; Gandy, 2005). This also entails addressing the political implications of such heritage for sustainable territorial planning and governance. The Grenoble plain offers a paradigmatic case. Since the late seventeenth century, two imaginaries—draining land and making water available—have guided its transformation from swamp to polder and ultimately into a “water tower.” Supported by “strong” hydraulic infrastructures, the floodplain was dammed, drained and urbanized as major systems harnessing local aquifers, by the late nineteenth century, enabled large-scale water mobilization for industry and domestic use (Brochet, 2023). Water thus became “modern” (Linton, 2011): abstracted, homogenized and subordinated to urban and economic development. This hydraulic order fostered a Large Technical Systems urbanism (Lopez, 2018) that rendered “weak” aquatic structures—groundwater, torrents, wetlands—invisible (Ambrosino, Brochet, 2025). In the current context of Alpine warming, intensified droughts, and recurrent flooding (Blanc, 2022), emerging imaginaries of “rehydrating the earth” (Morizot, Husky, 2024) challenge inherited separations between land and water, calling for a reconceptualization of water infrastructures as socio-political interfaces with the living (Roseau, 2025). Our research project (POPSU Transitions) explores how this cyborg hydrosocial territory (Boelens et al., 2016) might be reimagined through a Water Atlas, inspired by Feral Atlas (Tsing et al., 2020) and Petrochemical America (Misrach, Orff, 2023). Combining maps, photographs and situated narratives, the Atlas conducts a critical inquiry into the Anthropocene heritage. It examines how infrastructures that once separated water from land might now be rendered porous to their environments. Through a fine-grained characterization of water-related infrastructures and Grenoble’s hydrosocial metabolism, the project aims to delineate potential pathways of adaptation for cyborg territories.
ER -