This thesis looks at the relationshp between water and social power. It attempts to answer two questions: who controls the distribution of water in the South African city of Durban? And how might this distribution be transformed in positive democratic ways? In attempting to answer these questions, the thesis provides insights into post-apartheid South African society and the possibilities for democratic social change. The framework of analysis builds upon work conducted in urban political ecology. In particular, I argue that urban environments, indeed all environments, should be understood as created ecosystems. Recognising this, I suggest that Durban's waterscape should be seen as produced through capitalist social relations. The waterscape thereby becomes a particular accumulation strategy through which profits may be generated. for Durban's communities, one of the most direct effects of this capitalist accumulation strategy is that access to water is dependent upon the exchange of money. Whilst this situation has been amerliorated somewhat through the development of a free basic water policy, the policy itself has necessitated a much tighter regulation of domestic supplies and, in effect, a more severe commodification of each household's water supply. In turn, this has resulted in water infrastructure acquiring power over the lives of most residents. This, I argue, is a result of the social relations that come to be invested within that infrastructure. The possibilities for change that are suggested lie within the struggle for feminist standpoint and the connection of these situated knowledges of the waterscpe with a broader historical and geographical understanding of the terrain of civil society. from such an understanding of civil society, a dialectical critique of hegemony is opened up. Overall, the thesis moves from an analysis of the power relations camprising the waterscape to the development of a critique from which, it is hoped, the possibilities for political change might emerge.

In early 2000 the promotion of biofuels in Peru was set through the construction of discourses stressing their benefit to the country. Biofuels would not only respond to the increasing prices of fossill fuels in international markets, but it would also improve employment level by creating jobs in rural areas, contribute to change the energetic matrix and decrease carbon gases to slow down climatic changes. By 2006, several companies showed interest in producing ethanol from sugar cane in Piura, a semiarid area located in the northern coast of Peru. Investment included the acquisition of large extensions of land in addition to water rights adequate enough to irrigate large areas of monocrop production. From a political ecology framework, here I analyze how these companies discursively played with the ideas of water abundance and scarcity to secure their water rights to the detriment of peasant communities and smallholders who were traditional water rights holders. Finally, I argue that these discourses contributed to the production of a «waterscape» that not only reinforced water unsustainability but also social inequalities. / A principios del año 2000 los biocombustibles se promovieron en el Perú mediante discursos que subrayaban sus beneficios para el país. No solo responderían al incremento de los precios de los combustibles fósiles en los mercados internacionales sino también aumentarían el nivel de empleo al crear puestos de trabajo en zonas rurales, contribuirían a cambiar la matriz energética, así como reducirían los gases de carbono para desacelerar los cambios climáticos. Para el año 2006 varias empresas habían mostrado interés en producir etanol de la caña de azúcar en una zona semiárida de Piura. La inversión incluía la adquisición de grandes extensiones de terreno además de derechos de agua suficientes para irrigar extensas áreas de monocultivos. Desde el enfoque de la ecología política, en este artículo analizo cómo se usaron las ideas de abundancia y escasez de agua para construir discursos que aseguraran los derechos de agua de las empresas de biocombustibles en perjuicio de las comunidades campesinas y los pequeños productores, que eran los usuarios tradicionales del agua. Finalmente, argumento que estos discursos contribuyeron a la producción de un «paisaje hídrico» que no solo reforzó la insostenibilidad hídrica sino también las desigualdades sociales en esa cuenca.

Rapid economic development and urban expansion of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) places pressure on biomes and communities alike. In a world suffering from the increasing effects of climate change, unchecked urbanisation comes at the expense of carbon sequestrating environments. The modernisation, concretisation and gentrification of this low-lying, deltaic, monsoonal metropolis has seen its traditional, water-based urban morphology replaced with a solid state of perception, parallel to a loss of flood mitigating infrastructure. As the metropolis’ boundaries expand into its hinterlands, agriculturally productive land is being converted to residential, commercial and industrial development and the fate of low-income urban populations and farmers lies in the hands of speculators hoping to capitalise on increasing land values. Combatting this backdrop of neoliberal urbanisation is legislative framework intended to prevent speculation, yet it results in additional ecological damage as landowners clear natural-growth forests and mangroves to meet tax-reducing criterium. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the reasons behind and consequences of under-regulated urbanisation and gentrification and the effects this has had on the vulnerable ecology and communities of the BMR. It provides lessons on how previous short sighted and poor development regulations will have enduring social and environmental consequences long into the future and how adoption of traditional morphological ways-of-life and legislative amendments can limit further damage. The legacy of neoliberal urban development resulting in gentrification and underpinned by conflicting local planning laws are analysed and supported by various theoretical materials, field studies and interviews.