‘Our humanism cannot be captured in the bylaws’: How moral ecological rationalities and care shape a smallholder irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe

Abstract

In this article, we bring concepts of institutional bricolage, moral ecological rationalities and care into engagement, to explain the everyday management of an irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe. In doing this we: (a) emphasise the constant processes of bricolage through which irrigators adapt to changing circumstances and dynamically enact irrigation management; (b) illustrate some of the key features of the contemporary, hybridised moral-ecological rationalities that shape these processes of bricolage; (c) show how motivations to care (for people, the environment and infrastructure) as well as to control shape the bricolaged management arrangements. Through this approach, we aim to contribute to expanding ways of thinking about rationalities, including those that express the aspiration to live well together with human and non-human others, including water and infrastructure. The focus on moral-ecological rationalities is central to our contribution to critical water studies. This sheds light on actual practices of governing water and relationships between society-water/people and the environment. In so doing it helps us to understand the possibilities of caring for natural resources.

Together Strong or Falling Apart? Coping with COVID-19 in Smallholder Irrigated Agriculture

“…In this paper, we build on our previous work on the Rufaro smallholder irrigation scheme, in which we show how irrigation practices are shaped by moral ecological rationalities which emphasise sharing and caring alongside attempts to control water (Chitata et al, 2022). We have shown how the constantly changing nature and form of infrastructure calls for collective learning through situated and embodied knowledges and improvisations to make water flow in the irrigation scheme (Chitata, Kemerink-Seyoum, & Cleaver, 2021).…”

“…In a seeming contradiction, such office holders partially mirror the authoritarian modus operandi of the autocratic state, but also operate through the deployment of practical norms and the exercise of bricolaged authority. For example, the Chiefs and the Irrigation Management Committee legitimise their actions and authority by association with the ruling party (Chitata et al, 2022). However, in the process, they are also actors who participate and use practical norms in the fragmented spaces, blending authority variously from different sources-the government, the ruling party, lineage and elections.…”

“…They are still accountable and to a certain extent transparent". 20 The secretary of the cooperative insinuated that they represent the social beliefs of the people and uphold the socially embedded arrangements for effective management of the irrigation cooperative (Chitata et al, 2022). However, there are a few who, at some moments, felt the committee was unfair and labelled the committee as 'robbers' due to partial application of rules around debt payment (Chitata et al, 2021).…”

Why a feminist ethics of care and socio-ecological justice lens matter for global, interdisciplinary research on water security

“…The mainstream water literature focuses on water technology and issues of water management and control. But recent studies in the critical water literature highlight how the concept of care rooted in local understandings of their relationship with the environment and spiritual experiences plays an important role in arrangements for managing water and maintaining irrigation systems and ground water (e.g., Chitata et al, 2022;Domínguez-Guzmán et al, 2022), and that there needs to be room for diverse, and at times, divergent practices and ways of knowing in relation to water (Zwarteveen et al, 2021). Moving beyond technocratic tickboxes and embracing this context-sensitive relationality is how Crider and Ray (2022, p. 2) argue that we move "toward the recognition of gender justice as a foundation for water justice for all".…”