Constructing the State: Materiality, Imaginaries and the Politics of Chilean Electrification, 1939–43

abstract: Studies of electrification have privileged planning and policy, but this article demonstrates that material construction itself was a decisive arena of political contestation in state formation. Examining the construction of the Chilean State's first hydroelectric power plants between 1939 and 1943, the article shows how material choices shaped socio-technical imaginaries and mediated conflicts between engineers, the state and private actors. By foregrounding construction as a political act, it explains divergences between Chile's national electrification plans and their implementation and emphasizes infrastructure building as a core process of state-making.