Biography

I am a social and cultural anthropologist with a particular interest in infrastructure and social movements from the perspective of political ecology, feminism and decolonial theories. Since my Master's degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Bern, I have been working on (protest against) hydropower production in Ecuador and Latin America.

Since July 2024, I have been working as a PhD student on the research project ‘Maintaining Relations: Community-owned Hydropower Infrastructure Through Time’ with Prof Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi as principal investigator. The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

With this project, we want to contribute to the research how a more democratic and fairer energy transition can succeed. To this end, we are analysing the experiences of municipalities and communities in the Alps and Latin America that have been producing their own electricity with mini and micro hydroelectric power plants for decades. How is the necessary knowledge passed on? Who learns any necessary new skills? I will be researching these questions in Latin America.

Publications

Plüss, H. (forthcoming). Stamina and the Embodiment of Expertise: Resources of Transnational Activism to Counter Corporate Slow Violence. Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung.

Plüss, H. (2024). Small Project - Big Disaster: Large-Scale Problems within the Small-Scale Hydropower Project ‘San José del Tambo’ in Ecuador. In Disenchanted Modernities: Mega-Infrastructure Projects, Socio-Ecological Changes and Local Responses, edited by T. Haller and S. Weissman. Zürich: Lit Verlag.

Plüss, H. (2022). Development or Justice? The (De-)Construction of a Political Conflict around a Hydroelectric Powerplant in San Pablo de Amalí, Ecuador. Online presentation. LASA2022 Hybrid Congress: Polarización socioambiental y rivalidad entre grandes potencias, 5-8 May 2022.

Plüss, H. (2022). El impacto social de la planificación, construcción y operación de la hidroeléctrica San José del Tambo en la comunidad de San Pablo de Amalí y la cuenca del río Dulcepamba. Online presentation. Foro: Caso Río Dulcepamba, 23 February 2022, University San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador.