While the development of a water supply and sanitation network in the cities of the Global South ... more While the development of a water supply and sanitation network in the cities of the Global South has been mostly modeled after the template of European cities, with a city-wide system continuously providing important volumes of water through a network of pipes controlled by a private operator managing the entire water cycle, the purpose of this article is to explore alternatives to this system and to establish whether they can be complementary. It takes as a case study the urban aggregation constituted by the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia, where many families get their water from cooperatives. The Bolivian case is particularly interesting, first because the country has been through several “water wars” that have called into question the international diffusion of the private management of resources and services, but also because it sheds light on the emergence of social practices that generate new modes of regulation, about which still little is known. In order to establish the importance of small local systems, the survey has drawn on four sources (archives, spatial analysis through Geographic Information Systems, questionnaire-based interviews, observations) in order to develop a geo-indexed database and to analyze the social differentiations that operate in the field of water management.
This working paper presents the proceedings of an international workshop on water policies, held ... more This working paper presents the proceedings of an international workshop on water policies, held on January 2016 in (Delhi) and brought together 25 participants. It was supported by a number of partners (Centre for Policy Research, Centre de Sciences Humaines, Institut Francais of Pondicherry, UMI i-GLOBES CNRS/University of Arizona, ANR ENGIND, ANR BLUEGRASS, Indo French Water Network et Institut de recherche pour le Developpement). The research focused on comparisons between different case studies in a range of countries (USA, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Mexico, France and India), adopting an approach situated at the crossroads of geography and sociology. This international dimension proves particularly appropriate for a study of ‘water regimes’ as is consubstantial to their development: beyond the models often identified as “national’, from the 19th century onwards, we can identify rationales of transfer involving knowledge, expertise, skills and trained agents. From the beginn...
While the development of a water supply and sanitation network in the cities of the Global South ... more While the development of a water supply and sanitation network in the cities of the Global South has been mostly modeled after the template of European cities, with a city-wide system continuously providing important volumes of water through a network of pipes controlled by a private operator managing the entire water cycle, the purpose of this article is to explore alternatives to this system and to establish whether they can be complementary. It takes as a case study the urban aggregation constituted by the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia, where many families get their water from cooperatives. The Bolivian case is particularly interesting, first because the country has been through several “water wars” that have called into question the international diffusion of the private management of resources and services, but also because it sheds light on the emergence of social practices that generate new modes of regulation, about which still little is known. In order to establish the importance of small local systems, the survey has drawn on four sources (archives, spatial analysis through Geographic Information Systems, questionnaire-based interviews, observations) in order to develop a geo-indexed database and to analyze the social differentiations that operate in the field of water management.
This working paper presents the proceedings of an international workshop on water policies, held ... more This working paper presents the proceedings of an international workshop on water policies, held on January 2016 in (Delhi) and brought together 25 participants. It was supported by a number of partners (Centre for Policy Research, Centre de Sciences Humaines, Institut Francais of Pondicherry, UMI i-GLOBES CNRS/University of Arizona, ANR ENGIND, ANR BLUEGRASS, Indo French Water Network et Institut de recherche pour le Developpement). The research focused on comparisons between different case studies in a range of countries (USA, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Mexico, France and India), adopting an approach situated at the crossroads of geography and sociology. This international dimension proves particularly appropriate for a study of ‘water regimes’ as is consubstantial to their development: beyond the models often identified as “national’, from the 19th century onwards, we can identify rationales of transfer involving knowledge, expertise, skills and trained agents. From the beginn...
As the American Southwest faces its deepest drought in history, this book explores the provocativ... more As the American Southwest faces its deepest drought in history, this book explores the provocative notion of "water bankruptcy" with a view towards emphasizing the diversity and complexity of water issues in this region. It bridges between the narratives of growth and the strategies or policies adopted to pursue competing agendas and circumvent the inevitable. A window of opportunity provided by this current long-term drought may be used to induce change by dealing with threats that derive from imbalances between growth patterns and available resources, the primary cause of scarcity.
Originally edited in 2008, to be published in: Altiplano. La Bolivie et le paradoxe des communs (... more Originally edited in 2008, to be published in: Altiplano. La Bolivie et le paradoxe des communs (2015)
L'éco--socialisme, au--delà de la critique de gauche ? --Emilie Hache (dir.), Ecologie politique.... more L'éco--socialisme, au--delà de la critique de gauche ? --Emilie Hache (dir.), Ecologie politique. Cosmos, communautés, milieux, Paris, Editions Amsterdam, 2012. --Arno Münster, Pour un socialisme vert, Paris, Nouvelles Editions lignes, 2012 La pensée écologique est ambivalente politiquement 1 : de la défense de la nature au conservatisme social, le pas est souvent plus vite passé qu'on ne le croit. Cela ne veut pas dire que l'écologie, dans la diversité (souvent conflictuelle) des courants qui la composent comme une pensée politique globalement identifiable, puisse être assimilé à un simple mouvement réactionnaire 2 . En revanche, elle a souvent été instrumentalisée, détournée, ou finalement occultée par certains de ses prétendus défenseurs 3 . Le désastre de Fukushima a de ce point de vue atteint des sommets de cynisme et de doubles discours, avec des « retombées » en termes de déréglementation, de préservation des intérêts économiques et de génération de nouveaux profits -sans oublier la minoration systématique des « coûts humains » 4 .
This chapter contains three sections describing the integration of (1) people and the development... more This chapter contains three sections describing the integration of (1) people and the development of a collaborative research focusing on the Tucson Region; (2) disciplinary fields and methodological approaches; and (3) research results and their relevance for planning and management. 1 THE BIRTH OF A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROCESS Coming together: As may be expected at the beginning of any collaborative research effort, we spent considerable amounts of time during the first few months of the SWAN project (initiated in April 2012) learning about each partner's work. This period was characterized by long discussions about how to work across disciplinary divides, similarities and differences in methods and perspectives, and the seemingly unavoidable challenges of dealing with the diversity of academic jargon. During the spring of 2013, a group of SWAN-affiliated scientists based at the University of Arizona, began to meet once a week with the rotating group of " extended-stay'' international students to develop a cooperative approach oriented towards trans-disciplinary research. The initial discussions focused on establishing strong connections among the different disciplines represented, the development of a holistic vision of water-related research, and a search for common frames of analysis. The differences between disciplines and frameworks, especially between the basic notions of hydrological modeling and ecosystem services approaches, were carefully analyzed during several interactive working sessions. The seeds of integration: These discussions resulted in an initial proposal for project integration, that was realized in the form of a poster at the April 2013 Progress Meeting of the SWAN project held in Tucson, from which the foundation for our ongoing collaborative engagement became much more clear. With the value of weekly student/researcher meetings now extremely apparent to the group, the practice was unanimously institutionalized as a concrete means to advance scientific cooperation.
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