Democracy and Global Water Politics in Historical Perspective

“This very important book puts the commercialisation, and now financialisation, of water supplies in historical context and delivers a devastating critique of its failures across the world.” — William Outhwaite, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK “The politics of water has become a key issue in this century of droughts and floods. Esteban Castro’s book is a rare knowledgeable social analysis of it.” — Göran Therborn, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK 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 global water politics continue to preclude millions of human beings around the world from accessing essential water supplies required for dignified living conditions or even for survival. This includes millions 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. 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).