September 20, 2022

Unsettling (water) scarcity one raindrop at the time: Learning from the Revitalised Rainfed Agriculture Network in India

By Arianna Tozzi. Rainfed areas of India, where agriculture is reliant on seasonal rainfall, are often associated with drought-prone territories characterised by endemic water scarcity to be fixed by expanding irrigation. Tracing the historical roots beneath these naturalised scarcity framings, Arianna Tozzi discusses how the work of a grassroot network provides a space to reimagine an alternative paradigm for rainfed regions that values their diversity and variability.
June 7, 2022

Public Water Services in times of emergency: the case of the Covid19 outbreak

By Gemma Gasseau. The book “Public Water and Covid-19: Dark Clouds and Silver Linings”, discusses how the Covid19 outbreak has underlined once again the importance of water and other basic services for human life, and re-opened the debate on the role of the state in managing such services.
May 24, 2022

Conflicts over the memorialization of water in Barcelona: A temporal turn in political ecology

By Lucia Alexandra Popartan and Camil Ungureanu. As part of the current global trend towards the “museification” of water and processes of re-municipalization, the politics of memory of hydraulic infrastructures and water resources has become a key battleground between corporations and transformative socio-political movements. These struggles in cities such as Barcelona show the relevance of complementing the spatial turn in political ecology and urban geography with a temporal turn.
March 1, 2022

Thirst: The story of development, growth, and urban water inequality in Bangalore

By Aunindo Ghosh.  The symbolism and hidden messages of injustice lurking beneath the apparent success story of water governance in Bangalore, and a work of art which proved stronger than statistics in shifting perceptions around water and its politics. 
July 20, 2021

Where have all the commons gone in Italy? A new podcast

By Emanuele Fantini In Italy, the success of the referendum against water privatisation pushed many social movements to reframe their struggles – on labour, education, debt, land use…. – in the name of the commons. Emanuele Fantini explores the legacy of that season in a podcast, here presented for the series “Reimagining, remembering, and reclaiming water: From extractivism to commoning”.
June 17, 2021

Transforming capitalism? The role of the commons and direct democracy in struggles against water privatisation in Europe.

By Andreas Bieler In his new book “Fighting for Water: Resisting Privatization in Europe” Andreas Bieler analyses the struggles against water privatization in Europe since the early 1990s. In this post for the series “Reimagining, remembering, and reclaiming water: From extractivism to commoning” he explores to what extent these struggles point towards a potential future beyond capitalism.
May 27, 2021

Commoning through blogging: Reflections on our “Reimagining, remembering and recommoning water” series

By Irene Leonardelli, Gustavo García López and Emanuele Fantini. In two webinars at the IASC 2021 Water Commons Virtual Conference (19-21 May 2021), past and future contributors reflected on the joint UndEnv-FLOWs series “Reimagining, remembering, and reclaiming water: From extractivism to commoning”.
April 9, 2021

How imaginaries shift in places: Native and settler politics of water and salmon

By Cleo Woelfle-Erskine. The latest installment of the series “Reimagining, remembering, and reclaiming water” discusses how new eco-cultural imaginaries can emerge from alliances for river restoration between ranchers-conservationists, salmon scientists, and Tribal natural resource staff. 
January 19, 2021

Rooted Water Democracies and Water Justice 

By Jeroen Vos and Rutgerd Boelens. Transnational water movements often mutually complement with place-based forms of collective water management. This may enhance grounded and equitable water provision, and shape political advocacy of common resources control at multiple scales.
January 14, 2021

The Many Faces of Municipalisation

A long-term historical perspective on a city’s infrastructures can reveal radically diverse agendas behind the call for municipalisation.
December 9, 2020

“There is no future here”: the psychological burden of water scarcity

By Maja Ženko and Filippo Menga. Water scarcity negatively impacts mental health of the affected water users through various pathways.  
November 17, 2020

Not a “wasted” enterprise: political ecologies of wastewater wetlands in Kolkata

By Jenia Mukherjee and Amrita Sen Jenia Mukherjee and Amrita Sen reflect on multiple ways of knowing, experiencing and engaging with wastewater in East Kolkata Wetlands (India). This plurality offers original insights into a provocative question:  is wastewater always toxic, polluting and hazardous? A new post of the series “Reimagining, remembering, and reclaiming water: from extractivism to commoning”.