Rivers without rhythm? intermittent geographies and non-perennial rivers
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Non-perennial rivers run dry part of the year. By length, they are the most common type of river on Earth, yet they receive comparably little attention in social science and humanities research. This article advances the idea of ‘intermittent geographies’ as a tool for conceptualising, researching, and increasing the attention paid to non-perennial rivers. It considers how increased scientific attention to non-perennial rivers over the past two decades offers insights into their unique ecologies and temporalities, as well as risks and vulnerability to climate change. It critically examines how predominant social theories for critical river research, such as hydrosocial scholarship, prioritises the materialities of water and human-water relations in ways that do not fully capture the dynamics of non-perennial rivers. It engages recent scholarship on rivers, time, and rhythm to show how, for at least some non-perennial rivers, there is an important sense in which the conflation of rivers with flowing water is inadequate. In this context, intermittent geographies enhance attention to non-perennial rivers by showing how the absence of water is as relational as is water's presence. It also contributes to engagement with time and temporality by offering a conceptual language through which to understand phenomena that either lack rhythm or which have had it interrupted by anthropogenic forces of extraction or climate change.
Author: Jeremy J. Schmidt
Institution: Queen Mary University of London
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W7212406305