Water Sustainability: Anthropological Approaches and Prospects

Abstract

Water has become an urgent theme in anthropology as the worldwide need to provide adequate supplies of clean water to all people becomes more challenging. Anthropologists contribute by seeing water not only as a resource, but also as a substance that connects many realms of social life. They trace the different forms of valuing water, examine the often unequal distribution of water, explore the rules and institutions that govern water use and shape water politics, and study the multiple, often conflicting knowledge systems through which actors understand water. They offer ethnographic insights into key water sites—watersheds, water regimes, and waterscapes—found in all settings, though with widely varying characteristics. Anthropologists provide a critical examination of a concept called integrated water resource management (IWRM), which has become hegemonic in the global discourse of sustainable development.

Comparing peasants' perceptions of precipitation change with precipitation records in the tropical Callejón de Huaylas, Peru

“…Since the memories of individuals are limited in space and time they are not able to mirror the complete natural and societal processes. We understand this type of human knowledge as a subject of continuous iteration be-tween individual and collective perceptions, practices and beliefs, modified by specific socio-political and discursive dynamics (Boillat and Berkes, 2013;Orlove and Caton, 2010;Orlove et al, 2008;Zimmerer, 2010Zimmerer, , 2011. Accordingly, the derived information represents a snapshot of the broad and highly complex local knowledge about environment, society and history.…”

Socio-Psychological Perspectives on the Potential for Serious Games to Promote Transcendental Values in IWRM Decision-Making

“…For instance, a more explicit deliberation of the underlying values (a "values approach") of governing water resources has been argued to ensure that the management outcomes are actually socially and environmentally sustainable [52][53][54][55]. However, even if one diligently pursues the IWRM principles, in practice, values often conflict [56,57]. For example, the increased pressure from population demand and urbanization can make it difficult to balance social equity and sustainability, as it can be difficult to supply the demand without investing in infrastructure that leads to long-term negative impacts on the environment [7] (p. 90).…”

Thinking Relationships Through Water

“…Orlove and Caton (2010), for example, have mapped how anthropological research is relevant for a whole range of contemporary water issues, as it can highlight the multiplicity of values and knowledge and the intricacies of governance and politics in a context where water studies habitually reduce water to a resource the value of which can be expressed in money. Johnston and Fiske (2014) have argued that a re-evaluation of this common reduction of water is direly necessary given the current regime's disastrous effects on "biocultural health".…”

“…This sensibility has opened up possibilities for new approaches to watershed management as "infrastructure" in the social as much as the material sense (Carse 2012), or to drinking water provision as conditioned by "pressure" that is simultaneously physical and political (Anand 2011). Highlighting that water is physically part of political processes, rather than just the object of these processes (Bakker 2012) has led some to suggest that it may be insightful to study human society as "water cultures" (Bijker 2012) or "water worlds" (Barnes and Alatout 2012, Orlove and Caton 2010, Hastrup 2009). Furthermore, anthropologists (e.g.…”