Normalizing Discourses

Abstract

Infrastructure development and planning practices, both materially and discursively, shape the unequal distribution of flood risk. Taking the city of Santa Fe, Argentina, to illustrate this point, this chapter shows that because of the complex relationship between climate and outcomes, different people experience different risks in the same city, even while facing the same hazard. The focus is on not only how infrastructure physically transforms the urban landscape but also how it produces and is produced by people’s (both government and individuals) notions of what and who is at risk. Discourse about risk and infrastructure shapes the construction of the material world, the social order of the city, and very much influences how government and individuals perceive and frame risk and, importantly, develop climate-related risk reduction solutions.