Water justice struggles as a process of commoning

Clark, Cristy

doi:10.1093/cdj/bsy052

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Similar processes have been observed in other global South and global North countries (95,96). In the water sector, studies of movements influencing communal management are less generalized, although there is increasing attention to a globalized movement contesting neoliberal privatization, demanding the right to water of local communities and promoting community-based management (97)(98)(99)(100)(101). Notable cases can be found across Latin American countries such as Colombia (102), Mexico (103), Ecuador (104), and Bolivia (105), and in Southeast Asia, e.g., Bangladesh (106).…”

Section: 6mentioning

confidence: 78%

Commons Movements: Old and New Trends in Rural and Urban Contexts

Villamayor-Tomás

García-López

2021

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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Over the past few years, studies in political ecology and environmental justice have been increasingly connecting the commons and social movements empirically, giving shape to a new, distinctive body of research on commons movements. In our review, we first organize and synthesize empirical lessons from this body of literature. We then highlight recent theoretical efforts made by scholars to both bridge and transcend the gap between the theory of the commons and social movement theory. As we illustrate, movements can help create and strengthen commons institutions and discourses, as well as rescale them horizontally and vertically. This is particularly evident in the context of rural community-rights movements in the global South, as well as in new water and food commons movements and community-energy movements in both the global South and North. Commons institutions, in turn, can serve as the basis of social mobilization and become a key frame for social movements, as shown in the context of local environmental justice and livelihoods conflicts and anti-privatization struggles. Tensions and contradictions of commons-movement dynamics also exist and reflect trade-offs between diversity versus uniformization and organizational closure versus expansion of discourses and practices. Theoretically, there is an opportunity to cross boundaries from the theory of the commons to social movement theory and vice versa, e.g., by highlighting the role of political opportunities and framing, and biophysical factors and polycentricity, respectively. More importantly, a new commons movements theory is emerging focusing on cross-scalar organizations, the virtuous cycles between commons projects and mobilization, and the processes of commons-making. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Section: 6mentioning

confidence: 78%

Commons Movements: Old and New Trends in Rural and Urban Contexts

Villamayor-Tomás

García-López

2021

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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“…Observing irrigation systems that followed these principles, first in the Andes and later elsewhere in the world, Trawick et al (2014) argue that common‐pool irrigation systems based on moral economy principles emerged simultaneously in different societies around the world as a way to solve collective action problems. Yet, as CPR researchers become increasingly concerned with understanding when and how ideas of justice give rise to “commons movements” (in which people mobilize to resist the expropriation of water commons) (Clark, 2019; Villamayor‐Tomas & García‐López, 2021), the moral economies framework may help to provide explanatory power. For instance, using the moral economies framework, we can theorize that in a CPR system, violations of people's understandings of water justice via perceived unjust or unfair economic practices can cause the system can tip into a state of intensified reaction or mass revolt, spurring social movements and protests.…”

Section: Advancing Theory On Moral Economies For Water: Future Direct...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral economies for water: A framework for analyzing norms of justice, economic behavior, and social enforcement in the contexts of water inequality

et al. 2022

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Over the past two decades, scholars have invoked E. P. Thompson's and James Scott's concept of a "moral economy" to explain how people mobilize notions of justice to make claims to water. We draw together 20 years of literature to assess the state-of-the-art present in research on moral economies for water. We trace the historical foundations of the moral economies concept and its relevance to water; define the three basic components of a moral economy for water-(1) shared understandings of justice, (2) normative economic practices, (3) social pressure mechanisms-and provide examples of how they manifest globally. We then discuss how moral economies for water can cycle through four basic statesbalanced struggle, intensified reaction, mass revolt, and collapse and dissolution-at different scales. We also explore the implications of the moral economies framework for key areas of current research on water: water sharing, water commons, water markets, and biocultural outcomes, and discuss the ways in which the moral economies framework dovetails with recent advances in water research, especially the economics of water and development. We argue that the moral economies framework is a powerful explanatory tool for understanding the relationships between ideas of water justice, economic behaviors, and mechanisms of social enforcement that complements other methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives. We envision moral economies for water as a field that can facilitate a range of norm-based analyses of economic behavior and water justice, including across scales-from local to global-and in broad, integrative, multiscalar, and cross-disciplinary ways.

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“…Paired with marches was civil disobedience [68]. Activists in Detroit blockaded trucks on their way to shut off residents' water [69,70] (p. 12).…”

Section: The Streets: Resistance and Civil Disobediencementioning

confidence: 99%

Between Confrontation and Cooperation: Right to Water Advocacy in the Courts, on the Streets, and at the Capitols in the United States

Kozikis

Winkler

2021

Water

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Communities across the United States face a widespread water crisis including risks of contamination, rate increases, shut-offs for non-payment, and dilapidating infrastructure. Against this background, a right to water movement has emerged which has found its strength in coalition-building and collectivity. Activists demand change using the framing of “water is a human right”, socially constructing the right to water from below. Based on more than 25 semi-structured interviews with water advocates and activists, our article explores how movement participants used the human rights framework to advocate for clean and affordable water for all. We used political opportunity theory and conceptions of government “openness” and “closedness” to examine when and how advocates decided to use confrontational and cooperative approaches. We identified a push and pull of different strategies in three key spaces: in the courts, on the streets, and at the Capitols. Advocates used adversarial approaches including protests and civil disobedience, reliance on human rights mechanisms, and to a more limited extent litigation simultaneously with cooperative approaches such as engaging with legislators and the development of concrete proposals and plans for ensuring water affordability. This adaptiveness, persistence, and ability to identify opportunities likely explains the movement’s initial successes in addressing the water crisis.

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Water justice struggles as a process of commoning

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Commons Movements: Old and New Trends in Rural and Urban Contexts

Commons Movements: Old and New Trends in Rural and Urban Contexts

Moral economies for water: A framework for analyzing norms of justice, economic behavior, and social enforcement in the contexts of water inequality

Between Confrontation and Cooperation: Right to Water Advocacy in the Courts, on the Streets, and at the Capitols in the United States

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