Social Life of Water

John R. Wagner is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. He conducts research in Canada, the United States and Papua New Guinea and has published several journal articles on water governance in the Okanagan Valley. In 2007 he was lead guest editor of Customs, Commons, Property and Ecology, a special edition of Human Organization devoted to an analysis of Pacific Island customary property rights systems. Recent publications include “Water and the Commons Imaginary” in the Public Anthropology Forum of Current Anthropology (2012).

• List of FiguresList of TablesNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroductionJohn Richard WagnerPart I: CommodificationChapter 1. Contesting Equivalences: Controversies over Water and Mining in Chile and PeruFabiana LiChapter 2. Dam Nation: Cubbie Station and the Waters of the DarlingVeronica StrangChapter 3.  Water and Ill-being: Displaced People and Dam-based Development in IndiaLyla Mehta                 Part II: Water and TechnologyChapter 4. Aesthetics of a Relationship: Women and WaterNefissa NaguibChapter 5. La Pila de San Juan: Historic Transformations of Water as a Public Symbol in Suchitoto, El SalvadorHugo De BurgosChapter 6. Not so Boring. Assembling and Reassembling Groundwater Tales and Technologies from Malerkotla, PunjabRita BraraChapter 7. Kenyan Landscape, Identity and AccessSwathi VeeravaliPart III: UrbanizationChapter 8. Health Challenges of Urban Poverty and Water Supply in Northern GhanaIssaka Kanton OsumanuChapter 9. The Risk of Water: Dengue Prevention and Control in Urban CambodiaSarah C. SmithChapter 10. The Water Crisis in Ireland: The Socio-Political Contexts of Risk in Contemporary SocietyLiam LeonardPart IV: GovernanceChapter 11. Fairness and the Human Right to Water: A Preliminary Cross-cultural TheoryAmber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Sveinn Sigurdsson, Rhian Stotts, and Abigail YorkChapter 12. Indigenous Water Governance and Resistance: A Syilx PerspectiveMarlowe Sam and Jeannette ArmstrongChapter 13.  Bureaucratic Bricolage and Adaptive Co-management in Indonesian IrrigationBryan BrunsChapter 14. Anthropological Insights into Stakeholder Participation in Water Management of the Edwards Aquifer in TexasJohn M. DonahueIndex

“The Social Life of Water successfully addresses a wide range of issues concerning the meanings and uses of water in relation to culture, society, and development. As a volume, it shows how a focus on social life opens up new analytical possibilities of broader relevance to the study of water. Moreover, many of the chapters explore contexts and regions not previously covered in work on these topics.” · Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute“…this volume [is to be] recommended to readers interested in the anthropology of water and to those who wish to teach a course on the subject for both undergraduate and graduate students. The diversity of the topics covered in the book and the methodological and theoretical issues raised, provide several excellent teachable moments not to be missed. It also testifies to the richness of topics and ways in which the social lives of water can and should be explored by anthropologists in the future.” · Anthropological Notebooks“For anthropologists working in the water field, the book provides useful material to help the water field incorporate good social practice, research and theory into a transdisciplinary field currently interested in incorporating it into policy and management.” · Water Alternatives“This book fills an important niche on water related issues in anthropology by focusing on social and cultural manifestations of water management, use, and conflict… The organization is appropriate and effective.”  ·  Benedict J. Colombi, American Indian Studies Program, University of Arizona