290120 SE Seminar in Human Geography: (2020W)

This course discusses freshwater use, management and governance issues in the global South from a 'critical water studies' perspective. This means that it looks at topical water challenges as these present themselves in different parts of the world, engages with the often universalising and simplifying discourses on the 'global water crisis', and provides conceptual and theoretical tools for analysing the 'politics of water' in nuanced, interdisciplinary and multi-scalar ways. The course has four main parts. Part I is about water rights and access, Part II is about the commodification (marketisation) of freshwater in post-1990 development approaches, Part III deals with some of the ecological dimensions of water, and part IV finally discusses water governance, that is selected institutional dimensions of freshwater management.

Examples are chosen from a wide range of geographical context in the global South, with some examples from the global North as well. These include canal irrigation in India; gender relations in irrigation in Gambia and Nepal; payment for ecosystem services in Colombia & wetland mitigation banking in the USA; Transboundary water governance in the Middle East and Southeast Asia; corruption in the water sector in India and Indonesia; financialisation of housing and water in Mexico. The course present concepts and theories through examples and will make extensive use of in-class exercises/assignments through break-out groups.