Paper short abstract:

In this presentation I will look at common perceptions and misrepresentations of the water crisis by taking as a case study the increasing popularity of runanthons, i.e. long-distance walks or runs to raise money for a charitable cause.

Paper long abstract:

The human condition in the Anthropocene is marked by a persistent obsession over a looming catastrophe and an unresolved dispute over who is responsible for it. Against this backdrop, a sense of urgency about the global water crisis has entered the political and corporate discourse, and in humanity’s quest to solve it, we are all called to rise to the challenge. In this presentation I will look at common perceptions and misrepresentations of the water crisis by taking as a case study the increasing popularity of runanthons, i.e. long-distance walks or runs to raise money for a charitable cause. Runathons are both a public event and an individual project that revolves around sharing with others a personal sacrifice, or in some cases, even a pseudo-martyrdom, and they encapsulate well the main features of the modern neoliberal water activist of the early Anthropocene.