Water is a basic human need and a scarce commodity with increasing value to farmers, industries, and cities in an urbanizing world. It is unpredictable in supply and quality, difficult to contain or direct, and notoriously difficult to manage well. Several trends -- climate change, the endurance of widespread global water poverty, intensifying competition among rival uses and users, and the vulnerability of critical freshwater ecosystems -- combine to intensify the challenges of governing water wisely, fairly, and efficiently. The twenty-seven chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy address such issues over the course of seven thematic sections. These themes reflect familiar frameworks in the water policy world, including water, poverty, and health;
water and nature; and water equity and justice. Other sections look at emergent and contentious policy arenas, including the water/energy/food nexus and management of uncertainty in water supply, or connect well-established strands in new ways, including sections on water tools (water price and value, supply and demand, privatization, corporate responsibility) and issues surrounding transboundary waters. This volume conceives of water as a global issue, and gathers a diverse group of leading scholars of water politics and policy.
"Preface List of Contributors Part 1: Introduction 1. The Political Dimensions of Water Ken Conca and Erika Weinthal Part 2: Poverty, Rights, and Ethics 2. Water and Poverty: Pathways of Escape and Descent Ben Crow and Brent M. Swallow 3. Knowing Equity When We See It: Water Equity in Contemporary Global Contexts Margaret Wilder and Helen Ingram 4. Gender and Water Barbara van Koppen 5. Monitoring the Progressive Realization of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation: Frontier Analysis as a Basis to Enhance Human Rights Accountability Benjamin Mason Meier, Ryan Cronk, Jeanne Luh, Jamie Bartram, and Catarina de Albuquerque 6. Indigenous Peoples and Water Justice in a Globalizing World Sue Jackson 7. Re-Imagined Communities: A New Ethical Approach to Water Policy Veronica Strang Part 3: Food, Energy, and Water 8. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Arid Regions: The Politics of Problemsheds Martin Keulertz, Jeannie Sowers, Eckart Woertz, and Rabi Mohtar 9. The Nexus of Energy and Water Quality Erika Weinthal, Avner Vengosh, and Kate Neville 10. What is Food-water and Why Do We not Account for It? Martin Keulertz and Tony Allan 11. Unintended Water Allocation: Gaining Share from Indirect Action and Inaction Virginia Hooper and Bruce Lankford Part 4: Water and the Politics of Scale 12. Why Scale Matters: Borderless Water and Bordered Thinking Alice Cohen 13. Local Water Politics Sara Hughes and Megan Mullin 14. Rethinking Urban Water (In)formality Malini Ranganathan Part 5: Law, Economics, and Water Management 15. Innovation and Trends in Water Law Philippe Cullet 16. The Economics of Water Jeffrey M. Peterson and Nathan Hendricks 17. The Political Economy of Water Markets: Property Rights and Path Dependency in Rivers under Pressure Dustin Garrick and Jesper Svensson 18. The Business of Water Karen Bakker 19. China's Water Pricing Policies Zhong Ma, Dunhu Chang, and Fang Zhou Part 6: The Politics of Transboundary Waters 20. Managing Transboundary Rivers to Avert Conflict and Facilitate Cooperation Neda Zawahri 21. Transboundary Unbound: Redefining Water Conflict and Cooperation for Contemporary Challenges that Extend Beyond Watersheds, Regions, and Water Jacob D. Petersen-Perlman, Julie E. Watson, and Aaron T. Wolf 22. ""Something Has to Yield"": Climate Change Transforming Transboundary Water Governance (as We Know It) Joakim Öjendal and Gustav Aldén Rudd 23. River Basin Organizations and the Governance of Transboundary Watercourses Andrea K. Gerlak and Susanne Schmeier 24. The Absence of Water Conflicts in the Developing World: Evidence from Africa Clionadh Raleigh Part 7: The Politics of Water Knowledge 25. Adaptive Governance and Integrated Water Resources Management Mark Lubell and Carolina Balazs 26. Transfer, Diffusion, Adaptation, and Translation of Water Policy Models Farhad Mukhtarov and Katherine A. Daniell 27. Climate Information and Water Management: Building Adaptive Capacity or Business as Usual? Maria Carmen Lemos and Christine Kirchhoff Index"
Ken Conca is Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service at American University. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Governing Water and Confronting Consumption. Erika Weinthal is Lee Hill Snowdon Professor of Environmental Policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
