Democracy and Global Water Politics in Historical Perspective Against Water Privatization

This book addresses water privatization from a historical-sociological perspective and argues against the unrelenting imposition of neoprivatist water politics worldwide. Water is essential for life, but it is also a source of economic and political power. Prevailing water politics continues to erode the conditions of dignified living conditions of millions of human beings around the world, including many living in Western capitalist democracies. The book revisits water-related myths, fake truths, and authoritarian practices promoted or employed by International Financial Institutions, governments, and other powerful actors to keep enforcing long-failed policies grounded on ideological dogmas and short-term interests and argues for the substantive democratization of water politics and management. It rejects claims of scientific ‘neutrality’ from academics and other actors across the political spectrum who are co-responsible for the perpetuation of these conditions, interrogating the ethics of scientific-political pragmatism.

Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 Commodification and democratization processes.- Chapter 3 "Free market" privatist water politics.- Chapter 4 State-led capitalist water regime, water services and the reproduction of inequality and injustice.- Chapter 5 The attempted revival of "free market" water politics in the late twentieth century.- Chapter 6 A failed fairy story, with ongoing consequences.- Chapter 7 The Legacy of neoprivatist water politics.- Chapter 8 Water struggles and substantive democracy.- Chapter 9 Conclusions.

Jose Esteban Castro is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University, UK. He is a corresponding Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and a regular Visiting Professor in universities in Europe and Latin America. Previous books include Water, Power, and Citizenship. Social Struggle in the Basin of Mexico (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), Water and Sanitation Services. Public Policy and Management, coedited with L. Heller (2009, 2011), and Time, Science, and the Critique of Technological Reason, coedited with B. Fowler, and L. Gomes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).