Water, Creativity and Meaning Multidisciplinary understandings of human-water relationships

At a time of great turmoil and crisis, environmentally, socially and politically, water has emerged as a topic of huge global concern. Moreover, manyargue that what is needed in order tochange our relationship with the environment is a cultural paradigm shift. To this end, this volume brings together diverse approaches to exploring human relationships with the watery world and the other living things that rely upon it. Through exploring multiple creative ways of engaging with water and people, the volume adds to the current zeitgeist of writing about water by expanding thediscussion about this vital substance and how, as humans, we relate to it.Chapters focuson creative explorations and explorations of creativity in relation to developing these understandings, including concepts such as hydrocitizenship and responses to drought and flooding. Drawing on the in-depth research and experience of arts practitioners including participatory artists, as well as academics from a variety of fields including geography, anthropology, health studies and environmental humanities, the book provides a rich and multidisciplinaryperspective onwater and creative ways of engaging and understanding human–water relationships.It representsa valuablesource and inspirationfor academics, arts practitioners and those involved in environmental policy and governance.

Foreword by Veronica Strang Introduction PartI: Fluid processes: creative research with water 1. Water Power: Creativity and the Unlocking of Community Knowledge 2. This long river… 3. Sunless Waters of Forgetfulness (a geopoetic assemblage) 4. From Gallura to the Fens: Communities Performing Stories of Water Part II: Becoming water bodies 5. Mapping a Blue Trace: An Intermittent Swimming Life 6. Creative compulsions: performing surfing as art 7. Waves as Emblemata for Knowledge Part III: Water we know? 8. Re-envisioning the Hydro Cycle: The Hydrosocial Spiral as a Participatory Toolbox for Water Education and Management 9. Fluid-Sound 10. And all at once the clouds descend, Shed tears that never seem to end. Looking from the Early Modern Age at Water in the Anthropocene Part IV: When water disrupts: Water as agent and co-constitutor of place and culture 11. ‘Water mafia’ politics and unruly informality in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies 12. Encountering Water: Sensitivities and practices for moving beyond ‘Big Water’ interventions 13. Thinking like Water Moves – Living with Climate Change in Tarawa, Kiribati 14. Narratives that Travel: Anxiety, Affect and Water Politics in the Deschutes Watershed of Central Oregon 15. Conclusion Afterword: Interview with Matthew Gandy

Liz Roberts is a cultural geographer currently working at the University of West of England, UK, on an RCUK project on digital storytelling and water scarcity (www.dryproject.co.uk). Katherine Phillips is a social researcher at the University of West of England, UK, with interests in sustainable living, human–environment relations and the mainstreaming of radical alternatives.