Water Security, Justice and the Politics of Water Rights in Peru and Bolivia (Environment, Politics and Social Change) - Hardcover

Seemann, Miriam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137545224 ISBN 13: 9781137545220

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Synopsis

The author scrutinizes the claim of policy-makers and experts that legal recognition of local water rights would reduce water conflict and increase water security and equality for peasant and indigenous water users. She analyzes two distinct 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' formalization policies in Peru and Bolivia - neoliberal the former, indigenist-socialist the latter. The policies have intended and unintended consequences and impact on marginalized peasants and the complex inter-legal systems for providing water security on the ground. This study seeks to debunk the official myth of the need to create state-centric, top-down legal security in complex, pluralistic water realities. The engagement between formal and alternative 'water securities' and controversial notions of 'rightness' is interwoven and contested; a complex setting is unveiled that forbids one-size-fits-all solutions. Peru's and Bolivia's case studies demonstrate how formalization policies, while aiming to enhance inclusion, in practice actually reinforce exclusion of the marginalized. Water rights formalization is certainly no panacea.

About this title

About the Author

Miriam Seemann is an associate researcher at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Germany. She received her PhD from the University of Hamburg and holds an MA in Intercultural Conflict Management from the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. Her current research focuses on natural resource management, social struggles and peace and conflict studies. She is a member of the Justicia Hídrica / Water Justice Alliance.

From the Back Cover

The author scrutinizes the claim of policy-makers and experts that legal recognition of local water rights would reduce water conflict and increase water security and equality for peasant and indigenous water users. She analyzes two distinct 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' formalization policies in Peru and Bolivia - neoliberal the former, indigenist-socialist the latter. The policies have intended and unintended consequences and impact on marginalized peasants and the complex inter-legal systems for providing water security on the ground. This study seeks to debunk the official myth of the need to create state-centric, top-down legal security in complex, pluralistic water realities. The engagement between formal and alternative 'water securities' and controversial notions of 'rightness' is interwoven and contested; a complex setting is unveiled that forbids one-size-fits-all solutions. Peru's and Bolivia's case studies demonstrate how formalization policies, while aiming to enhance inclusion, in practice actually reinforce exclusion of the marginalized. Water rights formalization is certainly no panacea.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1137545224
• ISBN 13: 9781137545220
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244