The Amazon is located on the periphery of what is called a «global urbanization» process. However, the increase in the urban population and the adoption of an economic development model based on the extraction of natural resources are undeniable. These dynamics have made water become a scarce resource, despite of its physical availability. What role does water management play in the construction of territories nowadays? Concepts such as the hydro-social cycle, hydro-social network and water landscapes are applied in the city of Lamas (San Martin, Peru), allowing the understanding of existing hydro-social territories and the lack of sustainability linked to them. / La Amazonía está ubicada en la periferia de lo que muchos autores llaman un proceso de «urbanización mundial». Sin embargo, es innegable el aumento de la población que vive en ciudades y la adopción de un modelo de desarrollo económico basado en la extracción de recursos naturales. Estas dinámicas han convertido el agua en un recurso escaso, a pesar de pesar de que hay una gran disponibilidad física. ¿Qué rol cumple hoy la gestión del agua en la construcción de territorios? Conceptos como ciclo hidrosocial, red hidrosocial y paisajes del agua se aplican en la ciudad de Lamas (San Martín, Perú), permitiendo comprender los territorios hidrosociales existentes y la falta de sostenibilidad vinculada con estos.

La fluoration artificielle de l’eau est une méthode employée en tant que moyen de prévention de la carie dentaire. Il s’agit d’un traitement de l’eau dont le but est d’ajuster de façon « optimale » la concentration en fluorure dans l’eau potable pour la prévention de la carie dentaire, par l’ajout d’un composé fluoré. La fluoration de l’eau fait l’objet d’un débat de société depuis le début des années 1950. La théorie du cycle hydrosocial nous invite à réfléchir sur la manière dont l’eau et la société se définissent et se redéfinissent mutuellement dans le temps et dans l’espace. Cette théorie nous permet d’aborder l’étude du sujet de la fluoration avec une nouvelle perspective d’analyse. Il y a peu d’études en sciences sociales qui portent sur le sujet de la fluoration, généralement abordé d’un point de vue des sciences de la santé. Nous proposons de décrire le processus de production des eaux fluorées dans un contexte hydrosocial. Ce mémoire est structuré en quatre chapitres. Nous commençons par familiariser le lecteur avec la théorie du cycle hydrosocial. Ensuite, nous faisons une mise en contexte de la fluoration de l’eau, d’une part en présentant un état des lieux, et d’autre part en présentant ce en quoi consiste la pratique de la fluoration de l’eau. Après avoir familiarisé le lecteur avec les thèmes généraux concernant la fluoration de l’eau, nous proposons de reconstituer une histoire hydrosociale de la fluoration. Cette histoire nous permet de mettre en évidence les relations hydrosociales desquelles découle la production des eaux fluorées. L’histoire hydrosociale de la fluoration comporte une phase contemporaine que nous abordons en présentant les principales idées de l’opposition à la fluoration artificielle de l’eau à l’aide notamment d’une analyse iconographique d’images portant sur le thème de la fluoration. Finalement, nous discutons des implications de la théorie du cycle hydrosocial pour étudier la problématique de la fluoration. / Artificial water fluoridation is a method used as a way of preventing tooth decay. It is a water treatment that consists in adjusting the fluoride concentration in water to a “optimal” level in order for it to work in preventing tooth decay. Water fluoridation has been subject to social debate since the early 50’s. The theory of the hydrosocial cycle brings us to think about the ways water and society are mutually defined and redefined by one another in time and space. This theory allows us to study the subject of water fluoridation with a new perspective. There are few works in social sciences that are about water fluoridation, a subject which is generally approached by a health science point of view. We are proposing to describe the production process of fluoridated waters in a hydrosocial context. This research is organized in four chapters. First, we start by introducing the reader to the theory of the hydrosocial cycle by presenting the literature on the matter. Next, we put into context the practice of water fluoridation by first presenting the current state of affairs in regards to water fluoration programs across the world, and second by presenting the technical aspects of water fluoridation. After the reader has been presented with the general themes covered by the subject of water fluoridation, we propose to rebuild a hydrosocial of fluoridation. This story allows us to bring forward the hydrosocial relations from which stems the production process of fluoridated waters. The hydrosocial history of fluoridation includes a contemporary historical phase in which we introduce some key ideas about the opposition to artificial water fluoration. Furthermore, we try to illustrate some of the hydrosocial principles of fluoridation that are representative of the contemporary narratives by doing an iconographic analysis of images on the subject of fluoridation. Finally, we discuss about the implications of the hydrosocial cycle theory on the study of the fluoridation problem.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第24953号 / 地環博第244号 / 新制||地環||48(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 西前 出, 准教授 淺野 悟史, 教授 小林 広英 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

This thesis concerns the struggles related to a hydrosocial conflict prompted by the plan for hydropower development in the river Vjosa, Albania. Despite the controversial nature of hydropower, the quest for renewable energy has increased the interest in hydropower development globally. Renewables require a large amount of water, and the benefits are often reallocated to powerful players, which has caused concerns over water grabbing, power, justice, and rights. This study aims to examine the linked levels of contestation in the conflict over the hydrosocial territory of Vjosa, through legal and non-legal mechanisms. Further, the thesis uncovers underlying values and assumptions regarding the river and hydropower. For this purpose, the theoretical framework of political ecology and Echelons of rights are used. The echelons of rights are used to analyze the material, while political ecology is used as a lens for the overarching framework. The Political ecology lens on justice and territorialization contribute to enhanced understandings of the importance of social movements in contesting injustices and mismanagement of the environment. By interviewing social movements and domestic energy companies, as well as analyzing the environmental impact assessment, the results indicate that the understanding of the river and hydropower both differ and coincide, and how legal instruments do not only suppress people but can be used as a tool by social movements.

abstract: This research investigates the dialectical relationships between water and social power. I analyze how the coupled processes of development, water privatization, and climate change have been shaping water struggles in Chile. I focus on how these hydro-struggles are reconfiguring everyday practices of water management at the community scale and the ways in which these dynamics may contribute to more democratic and sustainable modes of water governance at both regional and national scales. Using a historical-geographical and multi-sited ethnographical lens, I investigate how different geographical projects (forestry, irrigated agriculture, and hydropower) were deployed in the Biobio and Santiago regions of Chile during the last 200 hundred years. I analyze how since the 1970s, these hydro-modernization projects have been gradually privatized, which in turn has led to environmental degradation and water dispossession affecting peasants and other rural populations. I frame these transformations using the political-ecological notion of hydrosocial assemblages produced by the different stages of the hydro-modernity—Liberal, Keynesian, Socialist, Neoliberal. I detail how these stages have repeatedly reshaped Chilean hydrosocial processes. I unpack the stages through the analysis of forestry, irrigation and hydropower developments in the central and southern regions of Chile, emphasizing how they have produced both uneven socio-spatial development and growing hydrosocial metabolic rifts, particularly during neoliberal hydro-modernity (1981-2015). Hydrosocial metabolic rifts occur when people have been separated or dispossessed from direct access and control of their traditional water resources. I conclude by arguing that there is a need to overcome the current unsustainable market-led approach to water governance. I propose the notion of a 'commons hydro-modernity', which is based on growing environmental and water social movements that are promoting a socio-spatial project to reassemble Chilean hydrosocial metabolic relations in a more democratic and sustainable way. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2016

Native to the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest, the indigenous people of West Papua, known as Papuan, have experienced substantial changes to their ecosystem over the last several decades, primarily to their water resources. As surface water has been a primary asset for drinking water consumption and their livelihoods for generations, the increase in pollution from expanding oil palm plantations impacts many lives. Receiving limited attention, disentangling this water injustice from power relations as a byproduct of the state-backed development, corporate-driven expansions, and consumer demand become pivotal to advocating for the indigenous community and their livelihoods. Therefore, this study explores integrating physical evidence of agricultural runoff from oil palm plantations and indigenous perceptions using hydro-social territories in a remote area in West Papua, Indonesia. Due to the lack of long-term investigations of the impact of water contamination in West Papua, a hydrological model will be used to assess the nature of the oil palm impact within the watershed. As deterioration in water quality is expected due to landscape changes, the indigenous perception of hydrological changes is crucial to determine how significant the impact is on local livelihoods. Semi-structured interviews will be used to study the perception of indigenous communities on water resources and threats of oil palm to their livelihood. The synthesis of those results will later be concluded using the hydro-social approach, involving a multi-scale analysis that includes Indonesian state and corporate actors through literature reviews from various sources (e.g., official documentation, corporate reports, and journals). This research will develop strategies to protect indigenous communities not yet impacted by large-scale changes in the watershed resulting from palm oil plantations.

During the modern era, the urbanization of water has been facilitated by various privileged discourses, which valorize major engineering interventions for the sake of continued urban growth. This research examines discourse surrounding the 2-th Century proposal and construction of a reservoir near the then-tiny farming community of Grapevine, Texas, for the benefit of urban interests. I argue that urban interests produced Grapevine space as nothing more than a container for city water, by rendering meaningless any conception of space that was not directly articulated with urban economic networks. Modern discourse collapsed Denton Creek space from a watershed and landscape into a dimensionless node in the urban space of flows. In return, rural inhabitants were encouraged to progress and to modernize their own spaces: to become urban. Whereas urban discourse entails an implicit spatial imaginary of networks, I deploy the conceptual framework of settler colonialism to show that a core-periphery relationship remains relevant, and is not reducible to a network spatial ontology.

Water stress is increasing globally, especially affecting arid regions of the world such as Egypt. Due to challenges related to intensifying effects of climate change and a rapidly growing population, the levels of and access to water is a continuous area of concern for the country – making it important to analyze how these water issues are managed. This study connects the hydrosocial cycle and commoning frameworks in analyzing how water is managed in a downstream, desert reclamation area in Fayoum, Egypt – and how this management, or lack thereof, affects the livelihoods of the people living there. In doing so, we examine how possible commoning practices are influenced by factors related to the hydrosocial cycle. Fieldwork has been conducted for this case study by holding participatory workshops, semi-structured interviews, and observations. Our findings imply that the hydrosocial cycle has shaped the management of water in our studied site, which has in turn affected the commoning practices that take place there. The low water levels and the saline quality of the water is what has created the prevalent forms of commoning that can be seen in the community.  The presence of a local agricultural association has also influenced the commoning practices. The quality and levels of water in the area are in part managed by neighbors borrowing irrigation minutes from each other, and by collective olive harvest. To a lesser extent there are also instances of neighbors helping each other with agricultural work throughout the year, and sharing reservoirs. There are indications that these commoning practices play a part in sustaining livelihoods in the community. The commoning practices found in the studied site have emerged in a relatively new social context and can be characterized as context specific patches of commoning, occurring on the peripheries of hybrid institutions – that have largely been shaped by hydrosocial forces. As the hydrosocial cycle is ever-changing, these commoning practices will likely also come to change.