Water governance in the twentieth-first century

Bibliographic Data

ID3755265
AuthorsJose Esteban Castro (0000-0001-6106-4313, Newcastle University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume10
Issue2
Pages97-118
Publication date2007-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmbiente & sociedade (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1414-753X • E-ISSN: 1809-4422
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/s1414-753x2007000200007
OpenAlexW2122875598
SCIELO_PIDS1414-753X2007000200007
LanguageEN
Citations received68
References cited31

It is widely ackowledged that the world water crisis is mainly a crisis of governance. However, there is no shared understanding of what "governance" means, how it works, who are its actors. The prevailing conceptions of governance in mainstream water policy documents tend to be instrumental and idealistic. Perhaps the most important consequence of instrumental and idealistic understandings of governance is the rhetorical depoliticization of what is, paradoxically, a political process. The main mechanism of this "depoliticization" of governance" is the exclusion of the ends and values informing water policy from the debate. Instrumental and idealistic understandings of governance constitute a major obstacle for the scientific understanding of the process and for achieving success in policy interventions directed at tackling the water crisis. The paper argues for the development of a balance between the techno-scientific, socio-economic, political, and cultural aspects of water management activities, which may help in superseding the artificial separation of water research and practice in disciplinary and corporatist feuds

Corporate governance · Discipline · Economics · Mainstream · Management · Obstacle · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Law · Public Administration · Transboundary Water Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization

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