The social life of water

Author(s)

    • Wagner, John Richard

Bibliographic Information

The social life of water

edited by John Richard Wagner

Berghahn Books, 2015

  • : pbk

Available at  / 1 libraries

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Note

Originally published: 2013

"First paperback edition published in 2015"--T.p. verso

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Everywhere in the world communities and nations organize themselves in relation to water. We divert water from rivers, lakes, and aquifers to our homes, workplaces, irrigation canals, and hydro-generating stations. We use it for bathing, swimming, recreation, and it functions as a symbol of purity in ritual performances. In order to facilitate and manage our relationship with water, we develop institutions, technologies, and cultural practices entirely devoted to its appropriation and distribution, and through these institutions we construct relations of class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality. Relying on first-hand ethnographic research, the contributors to this volume examine the social life of water in diverse settings and explore the impacts of commodification, urbanization, and technology on the availability and quality of water supplies. Each case study speaks to a local set of issues, but the overall perspective is global, with representation from all continents.

Table of Contents

List of Figures List of Tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction John Richard Wagner Part I: Commodification Chapter 1. Contesting Equivalences: Controversies over Water and Mining in Chile and Peru Fabiana Li Chapter 2. Dam Nation: Cubbie Station and the Waters of the Darling Veronica Strang Chapter 3. Water and Ill-being: Displaced People and Dam-based Development in India Lyla Mehta Part II: Water and Technology Chapter 4. Aesthetics of a Relationship: Women and Water Nefissa Naguib Chapter 5. La Pila de San Juan: Historic Transformations of Water as a Public Symbol in Suchitoto, El Salvador Hugo De Burgos Chapter 6. Not so Boring. Assembling and Reassembling Groundwater Tales and Technologies from Malerkotla, Punjab Rita Brara Chapter 7. Kenyan Landscape, Identity and Access Swathi Veeravali Part III: Urbanization Chapter 8. Health Challenges of Urban Poverty and Water Supply in Northern Ghana Issaka Kanton Osumanu Chapter 9. The Risk of Water: Dengue Prevention and Control in Urban Cambodia Sarah C. Smith Chapter 10. The Water Crisis in Ireland: The Socio-Political Contexts of Risk in Contemporary Society Liam Leonard Part IV: Governance Chapter 11. Fairness and the Human Right to Water: A Preliminary Cross-cultural Theory Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Sveinn Sigurdsson, Rhian Stotts, and Abigail York Chapter 12. Indigenous Water Governance and Resistance: A Syilx Perspective Marlowe Sam and Jeannette Armstrong Chapter 13. Bureaucratic Bricolage and Adaptive Co-management in Indonesian Irrigation Bryan Bruns Chapter 14. Anthropological Insights into Stakeholder Participation in Water Management of the Edwards Aquifer in Texas John M. Donahue Index

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