Shill alert! Here are the abstracts for some of my publications due out in 2014:

Historicising the hydrosocial cycle

In Water Alternatives (February issue):

Abstract: This paper examines the historical claims made in support of the hydrosocial cycle. In particular, it considers how arguments advancing the hydrosocial cycle make historical claims regarding modernist conceptions of what water is (i.e. H₂O) and its fit with society. The paper gives special emphasis to the society/nature dualism and to the notion of agency as key sites of contest in arguments regarding the hydrosocial cycle. It finds that, while several versions of the hydrosocial cycle seek to advance a political ecology more sensitive to non-human actions, these same accounts often do not address the robust account of non-human agency in the historical record. Evidence is presented regarding water’s agency amongst late 19^th and early 20^th century architects of key water management norms in the United States. This evidence troubles accounts of the hydrosocial cycle that critique the US experience and suggests new directions for rethinking the role of historical and institutional norms in water policy.

Water management and the procedural turn: norms and transitions in Alberta

In Water Resources Management:

Abstract: Water management reforms promoting deliberative, decentralized decision making are often effected through new procedures designed to accommodate a range of stakeholder perspectives. This paper considers the role of political and ethical norms affecting this ‘procedural turn’ in order to understand the management of transitions in complex socio-technical systems. It examines both the discourse and practice of water reforms in Alberta, Canada in order to identify how new procedures were designed alongside changes to management institutions. It finds that the role of existing social and cultural contexts an uneasy fit with procedural norms theorized in deliberative models given historical practices of democracy. Using examples from the Alberta case, it draws out implications for understanding the procedural turn in water management and the role of norms effecting transitions toward sustainability.

False Promises: The contours, contexts and contestation of good water governance in Lao PDR and Alberta, Canada

In International Journal of Water Governance (with Nate Matthews):

Abstract: Good water governance in Lao PDR and Alberta, Canada emerged in different political contexts of, respectively, communism and democracy. Yet both espouse similar principles of participation, transparency and accountability. Drawing on multiple methods, this paper examines how contests over governance affect the adoption of, and mechanisms for, ‘good water governance.’ It gives particular emphasis to how both scale and context influence, and at times curtail, the promises of good water governance. In both Lao PDR and Alberta, we examine how governance mechanisms have been wielded by what we call closed communities. These communities are part of the dark side of water governance. They espouse good governance principles yet retain political power apart from them. We suggest good water governance is far from guaranteed by particular political systems, new institutions or even legislation.