Format/Structure

Traditional format - i.e. paper presentations followed by discussion/questions

Long Abstract

Access to safe and affordable water services is one of the most pressing global challenges in the 21st century and has long been a core focus of political ecology research (Budds 2004; Linton 2010; Ranganathan and Balazs 2015; Swyngedouw 2009). Instead of challenging the political and economic systems underpinning water crisis, dominant solutions focus on increasing water supply through high-tech, non-conventional means. In this context ‘new water’ sources, such as desalination, are emerging as the leading ‘solution’ of the 21st century (Williams, 2022).

The volume of desalinated water has increased exponentially, as this technology has become central to supplying entire cities, and sometimes countries. Yet, despite its rising importance, desalination remains underexplored in critical social science and most of the political ecology research on this topic so far has focussed on the main geographical hubs of the industry. Desalination, which is being utilised in increasingly diverse contexts, is deeply embedded in contemporary process of financialization (Loftus and March, 2016; Pryke and Allen, 2019), and is deeply linked to political power (Swyngedouw, 2013; Williams, Beveridge and Mayaux, 2023). Moreover, desalination has the potential to deeply reshape access to water in both networked and non-networked contexts, and reconfigure local and global power relations, offering insights on future forms of water (in)justice.

In this session we will explore the political ecologies of ‘new’ sources of water, such as desalination, and address the following questions. How do these technologies shift water allocation across sectors (e.g., agriculture vs. urban use) and affect marginalized (subaltern) populations? How do they change human relationships with water as a vital element to all forms of life?

We welcome conceptual, ethnographic, and grounded research that addresses desalination as both material infrastructure and political project—one that transforms the meanings, uses, and governance of water in the age of scarcity.

This Panel has 6 pending paper proposals.
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