Public taps and private connections

The production of caste distinction and common sense in a Rajasthan drinking water supply project

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8962392
AutoresKathleen O’reilly (0000-0002-5887-9279, Texas A&M University, autor correspondente), Kathleen O'Reilly (0000-0003-2298-3610, Department of Geography Texas A&M University MS 3147 College Station TX 77843‐3147 USA), Richa Dhanju (Department of Social Work St. Catherine University MS F15 St. Paul MN 55105 USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume39
Fascículo3
Páginas373-386
Data de publicação2013-12-18
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12039
OpenAlexW2047620790
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas43

This paper analyses a drinking water supply project in rural Rajasthan, India, that deliberately sought to create greater equality across caste for water users through a combination of public taps and payment for water. Later, in the post‐construction phase of the project, those goals were undermined by the counter‐technologies of upper caste households and the village‐scale institutions that supported them. The paper brings together geographic research on neoliberal water governance and caste processes in modern rural India to illuminate how neoliberal subjectivities deepened in the post‐project phase. It shows the ways that caste norms, village water governance and state power converged to produce ‘new’ ways of thinking about water access and payment that undermined the social goals and the physical infrastructure of the project. The paper contributes to research on neoliberalisation and the creation of subjects by demonstrating the mutual constitution of caste inequalities and successfully marketised drinking water over the construction and post‐construction phases of the project

Business · Caste · Constitution · Constitution of India · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Political science · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Water supply · Engineering · Finance · Law · Social and Economic Development in India · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization