Out of the Mainstream

by Boelens, Rutgerd; Getches, David; Guevara-Gil, Armando

• ISBN13: 9781844076765
• ISBN10: 1844076768
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Water is not only a source of life and culture. It is also a source of power, conflicting interests and identity battles. Rights to materially access, culturally organize and politically control water resources are poorly understood by mainstream scientific approaches and hardly addressed by current normative frameworks. These issues become even more challenging when law and policy-makers and dominant power groups try to grasp, contain and handle them in multicultural societies. The struggles over the uses, meanings and appropriation of water are especially well-illustrated in Andean communities and local water systems of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia, as well as in Native American communities in south-western USA. The problem is that throughout history, these nation-states have attempted to 'civilize' and bring into the mainstream the different cultures and peoples within their borders instead of understanding 'context' and harnessing the strengths and potentials of diversity. This book examines the multi-scale struggles for cultural justice and socio-economic re-distribution that arise as Latin American communities and user federations seek access to water resources and decision-making power regarding their control and management. It is set in the dynamic context of unequal, globalizing power relations, politics of scale and identity, environmental encroachment and the increasing presence of extractive industries that are creating additional pressures on local livelihoods.While much of the focus of the book is on the Andean Region, a number of comparative chapters are also included. These address issues such as water rights and defence strategies in neighbouring countries and those of Native American people in the southern USA, as well as state reform and multi-culturalism across Latin and Native America and the use of international standards in struggles for indigenous water rights. This book shows that, against all odds, people are actively contesting neoliberal globalization and water power plays. In doing so, they construct new, hybrid water rights systems, livelihoods, cultures and hydro-political networks, and dynamically challenge the mainstream powers and politics.

Author Biography

Rutgerd Boelens is an Associate Professor with Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Visiting Professor at Universidad Catlica del Per, and coordinator of the research programmes Water Law and Indigenous Rights, Concertacin, and Justicia Hdrica. David Getches is Dean of the University of Colorado School of Law, Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law, and was founding executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. Armando Guevara-Gil is a researcher with Instituto Riva-Agero and Assistant Professor of Law at Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, Lima.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. xv
An Introduction to Water Rights, Power, Identity and Social Struggle
Water Struggles and the Politics of Identity	p. 3
Introduction	p. 3
Water rights, collectives and identity in the Andean countries	p. 7
Contents of the book	p. 11
Water rights, water territories and the politics of scale and identity	p. 17
Water Property Relations and Modern Policy Regimes: Neoliberal Utopia and the Disempowerment of Collective Action	p. 27
Introduction	p. 27
Utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares	p. 29
Neoliberal capitalism as a Utopia?	p. 30
Understanding water policies as Utopian neoliberal projects	p. 42
Conclusions	p. 50
The Limits of State Reform and Multiculturalism in Latin America: Contemporary Illustrations	p. 57
Three decades of indigenous struggle	p. 57
Evaluating the new multiculturalism	p. 59
Multicultural policies in Latin America	p. 61
Conclusions	p. 70
A Masculine Water World: The Politics of Gender and Identity in Irrigation Expert Thinking	p. 75
Introduction	p. 75
Misrepresenting women and gender in irrigation	p. 76
Power, perspective and knowledge	p. 77
Gendered metaphors and dichotomies	p. 81
Technical and management systems and boundaries	p. 84
Conclusions	p. 89
Politics of Identity and Andean Livelihoods
Identity Politics and Indigenous Movements in Andean History	p. 99
Introduction	p. 99
Equality and exclusion in Latin America	p. 101
The 'liberal' revolution in Ecuador, 1895	p. 103
Indigenistas and anthropologists	p. 105
The emergence of indigenous movements in the late 20th century	p. 108
Indigenous movements and contemporary politics	p. 111
Conclusions	p. 113
Cultural Identity and Indigenous Water Rights in the Andean Highlands	p. 119
Introduction: Water and identity in the Central Andes	p. 119
Indigenous people, Andean culture and the politics of representation	p. 120
The highland community and water	p. 127
Indigenous mobilization and the cultural politics of water	p. 131
Conclusions	p. 137
Land, Water and the Search for Sustainable Livelihood in the Andes	p. 145
Introduction	p. 145
The 'Andean attitude' to natural resources: The holistic picture	p. 149
Current patterns of land and water tenure: A basis for sustainable livelihoods?	p. 151
Land and water as criteria for well-being and social mobility	p. 156
Conclusions and policy implications	p. 159
Tensions and Mergers Among Local Water Rights and National Policies
Water Laws, Collective Rights and System Diversity in the Andean Countries	p. 165
Introduction	p. 165
Legal security of water rights	p. 166
Individual rights and system rights	p. 169
Diversity of systems	p. 173
Water, territoriality and community	p. 178
Conclusions	p. 180
Water Rights and Conflicts in an Inter-Andean Watershed: The Achamayo River Valley, Junín, Peru	p. 183
Introduction	p. 183
Official design versus local reality	p. 184
Water organization and management in the Achamayo River Basin	p. 186
Conflicts over water and legal pluralism in an inter-Andean watershed	p. 188
Conclusions	p. 192
Water Rights, Mining and Indigenous Groups in Chile's Atacama	p. 197
Introduction	p. 197
Chile's 1981 Water Code	p. 199
Water, mining and indigenous groups in the Atacama	p. 203
Conclusions	p. 208
Indian Water Rights in Conflict with State Water Rights: The Case of the Pyramid Lake Partite Tribe in Nevada, US	p. 213
Introduction: Indian reserved water rights	p. 213
A fishery in 'exclusive possession' of the Indians	p. 215
Water for non-Indian neighbours	p. 217
Pyramid Lake fishery imperilled	p. 218
The legal struggle	p. 220
Conclusions	p. 221
Acequias of the South-Western US in Tension with State Water Laws	p. 223
Introduction	p. 223
Foundations of the South-west: Acequias	p. 223
Western US expansion and Mexican water institutions	p. 224
Loss of watershed autonomy; loss of acequia landscape	p. 228
Restoration of the acequia commons: Landowner commitment and state action	p. 229
Conclusions	p. 232
Community-Controlled Codification of Local Resource Tenure: An Effective Tool for Defending Local Rights?	p. 235
Introduction	p. 235
Territorial rights negotiations and codification of local tenure	p. 237
Ethnic reconstruction and inter-legality	p. 241
The third way in matters of land tenure reform	p. 248
Conclusions	p. 252
Social Mobilization and Grassroots Strategies for Water Rights
Using International Law to Assert Indigenous Water Rights	p. 259
Introduction	p. 259
International law	p. 260
Potential indigenous water rights claims under international law	p. 263
Conclusions	p. 276
Networking Strategies and Struggles for Water Control: From Water Wars to Mobilizations for Day-to-Day Water Rights Defence	p. 281
Introduction	p. 281
Social movements and natural resource management in the Andes: The roles of livelihood and spatial scale	p. 283
Water wars and multi-scalar strategies in Bolivia	p. 286
Social mobilization and multi-scalar networks for water rights justice: An Ecuadorian case	p. 293
Multi-scalar networks and strategies for water rights defence: Social movements, transnational networks and the politics of scale	p. 298
Conclusions	p. 300
Federating and Defending: Water, Territory and Extraction in the Andes	p. 307
Introduction	p. 307
Extraction, water and territory	p. 308
Federation and contestation	p. 314
Mining, water and rural organization in Piura, Peru	p. 318
Conclusions	p. 322
Conclusions: Water Rights, Power and Identity	p. 329
List of Contributors	p. 343
The Networks Water Law and Indigenous Rights (WALIR), Concertación and Justicia Hídrica	p. 351
Index	p. 353
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.