Water Contestations: Socio-Technical Entanglements, Politics and Social Mobilisation

Dear Colleagues,

Water is intrinsically contested and therefore political, meaning that it is part and parcel of arrangements of power and authority in human–water–technology associations and the activities and conflicts that take place within these socio-material arrangements. Based on this notion, this Special Issue will advance our understanding of water contestations and how they unfold through intricate socio-technical, socio-material and symbolic relations. All the papers in this Issue seek to study how socio-political processes and/or cultural–symbolic dimensions connect with physical–material expressions in everyday contestation over water. These contestations often involve disputes over water’s material distribution, its socio-normative and cultural organization, its political and technological control, its ontological definition, and over the worldviews that explain and legitimize the ways in which water and waterworlds are to be known and ordered.

The collection of papers will engage with a variety of current debates and theories on the politics of water, including issues that range from water as a human right, the politics of water’s nature, hydrosocial territorialization and the politics of knowledge to social movements and struggles for water commoning.

We are looking for both rich empirical case studies and theoretical contributions, as well as literature reviews, relating to the outlined topic. The Special Issue will aim to bring together perspectives and cases from across the world, contributing to the ‘political ecology of water’ as a field of engaged research and societal action.

Dr. Jaime Hoogesteger
Prof. Dr. Rutgerd Boelens
Dr. Gert Jan Veldwisch
Dr. Jeroen Vos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.