Large-scale infrastructure projects are frequently represented as instruments of economic modernization, technological advancement, and regional integration. However, the benefits generated by infrastructural development may coexist with unequal distributions of environmental risks, political authority, and social costs. This article develops a socio-ecological framework for examining the St. Lawrence Seaway as a case of engineering progress that can be critically assessed through the interconnected dimensions of political economy, imperial power, resource control, environmental transformation, and distributive justice. The study employs a qualitative conceptual methodology based exclusively on the supplied literature, particularly works addressing imperialism, international political economy, state power, resource governance, and unequal relationships between powerful institutions and affected populations. Because the provided references do not directly document the environmental history of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the article does not claim to provide an empirical reconstruction of specific Seaway impacts. Instead, it develops an analytical model that can be applied to such infrastructure development. The framework demonstrates that technological achievement cannot be evaluated independently from questions concerning who defines development objectives, who controls resources, who receives economic benefits, and who bears environmental and social costs. The analysis further identifies the importance of examining infrastructure through multiple scales of power rather than treating engineering decisions as politically neutral. The study contributes a transferable socio-ecological approach for future empirical research on the St. Lawrence Seaway and comparable large-scale infrastructure projects.
Engineering Progress and Environmental Injustice: A Socio-Ecological Framework for Examining the St. Lawrence Seaway Development
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