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Long abstract:

Faced with the crossing of planetary boundaries and the impacts of climate change, new experiments - that tend to visibilise the plurality of water through alternative ontologies and practices (Linton, 2010) are emerging. We aim to introduce a political ecology approach of such water-related alternatives (Boelens & al. 2022), based on the empirical study of the Drôme valley (French pre-alps).

We use direct and participant observation, semi-structured interviews and landscape analysis to identify discourses and practices distinct from the governmental narratives centre around climate change adaptation, "securitisation" through inter-storage storage, needs and resources assessment and water-controlling technologies (Lankford & Chenoweth, 2013). For instance, we explore nature based-solutions of the «new water paradigm» to regenerate climate and water cycle (Kravčík & al., 2007), low-tech process-based restoration to rehydrate territories (Jordan & Fairfax, 2022), community-based management to prevent scarcity and propositions around legal or political personalisation of natural entities to prevent ecosystem degradation.

Three main results are expected here. First we look for understanding how these alternatives emerge, set up, and maintain in a specific area. Then, we expect to determine how these movements challenge established governance and its rules by raising issues of values and justice (Perreault, 2014). Thus, studying the development of theses experiments, as well as their interplay with institutions will inform us about the way in which water paradigm and narrative can shift at a local level and how niche innovations (Geels, 2002) disseminate their views, regarding other-than-humans, and practices for drought management.