A Future History of Water

In A Future History of Water, Andrea Ballestero traces the changing relationships between humans and water in Costa Rica. She examines how water has become entangled with ideas of the future, from anxieties about scarcity to utopian visions of abundance. Through ethnographic research focusing on a large-scale irrigation project, Ballestero explores how different actors-farmers, engineers, scientists, and policymakers-imagine and plan for the future of water. She argues that these future-oriented practices shape present-day realities, creating new forms of inequality and reshaping the very substance of water itself. The book challenges conventional narratives of water scarcity and offers a critical perspective on the role of technology and expertise in shaping our relationship with the environment

Latin America · Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography · Water rights · Water-supply