CPO 6796: WATER POLITICS
University of Florida, Fall 2013
Section 0197
Weds. 5-7 (11:45-2:45)
Matherly 004
Professor Katrina Schwartz
office: 223 Anderson Hall
phone: 273-2371
email: kzss@ufl.edu
Office hours:
Weds. 3:00-5:00
Fri. 9:30-10:30
or by appointment
Course Description
This course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of "water politics" – that is, the political dimensions of human
manipulation of water and watersheds. While the substantive focus is water, the course also introduces key topics in
social-scientific theorizing about human-environment relations; it is thus of interest to students not specializing in
water-related subjects. Course readings draw from not only political science and public policy but also geography,
sociology, and history. Topics are illustrated through a geographically diverse set of case studies from both the
global North and South. Prior coursework in the social sciences is useful but not required.
In the first part of the course we examine “hydraulic societies,” analyzing the relationships between state power,
economic interests, and large-scale hydro-engineering (i.e. irrigation and drainage). We also examine resistance to
hydro-development and efforts to make hydraulic society more sustainable. In the remainder of the course, we
examine a wide range of topics including the governance of common-pool resources, water privatization, equity,
participatory approaches to water management, and conflict and cooperation in the governance of transboundary
waters.
Required Reading
The following books are required reading. They are also available on two-hour reserve at Library West:
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Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West (Oxford, 1985)
Robert Gottlieb, A Life of Its Own: The Politics and Power of Water (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988)
Steven P. Erie, Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in
Southern California (Stanford, 2006)
Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge,
1990)
Sanjeev Khagram, Dams and Development: Transnational Struggles for Water and Power (Cornell, 2004)
John M. Whiteley, Helen Ingram and Richard Warren Perry, eds., Water, Place & Equity (MIT, 2008)
Course Assignments
The requirements for this class are as follows:
10%: attendance and active participation. I expect you to come to class every week prepared to discuss the readings.
Any absence must be explained, preferably in advance. If you have more than two absences you should expect to
receive a 0 for this component.
40%: FIVE short summary and response papers on the assigned readings (roughly 4 pages double-spaced, 12-point
font). Due via email by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesdays. Late papers will not be accepted without a valid medical or
other excuse. Guidelines will be posted in e-learning.
5%: paper proposal and preliminary bibliography
5%: rough draft
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40% : final paper (literature review or research paper). 18-20 pages double-spaced. Guidelines will be distributed in
class.
Grading: final letter grades are assigned according to the following percentages:
A 93-100, A- 90-92, B+ 87-89, B 83-86, B- 80-82, C+ 77-79, C 73-76, C- 70-72, D+ 68-70, D 63-67, D- 60-92, E
59 and below.
For more information, go to: http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationgrades.html
Classroom Policies and Ethics
Honor Code: Academic honesty and integrity are fundamental values of the University community. An academic
honesty offense is defined as the act of lying, cheating, or stealing academic information so that one gains academic
advantage. In the event that a student is found cheating or plagiarizing, s/he will receive a zero for the assignment
and will be reported to Student Judicial Affairs. For more information, go to:
http://www.dso.ufl.edu/studenthandbook/studentrights.php
Students with disabilities requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office.
The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to
the Instructor when requesting accommodation. Anyone with a disability should feel free to see the professor during
office hours to make the necessary arrangements.
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Schedule of Classes
WEEK 1: 8/21
Introductions
WEEK 2: 8/28
Hydraulic society
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Worster, Rivers of Empire
WEEK 3: 9/4
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Gottlieb, A Life of its Own
WEEK 4: 9/11
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Water, power, and growth
Counterpoint: in defense of the MET
Erie, Beyond Chinatown
WEEK 5: 9/18 Reinventing hydraulic society: large-scale ecosystem restoration in the Everglades
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Francois Molle, Peter P. Mollinga and Philippus Wester, "Hydraulic Bureaucracies and the Hydraulic
Mission: Flows of Water, Flows of Power," Water Alternatives 2, 3 (2009): 328-349
George A. Gonzalez, "The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: Environmental or Economic
Sustainability?" Polity 37, 4 (2005): 466-490
Fred H. Sklar et al., “The Ecological-Societal Underpinnings of Everglades Restoration,” Frontiers in
Ecology and the Environment 3, 3 (2005): 161-169
Laura Ogden, “The Everglades Ecosystem and the Politics of Nature,” American Anthropologist 110, 1
(2008): 21-32
Alfred R. Light, “Spark Plugs of Policy Implementation: Intergovernmental relations and public
participation in Florida’s Acceler8 Initiative to Speed Everglades Restoration,” Vermont Law Review 30
(2005-2006): 939-968
Keith W. Rizzardi, “The Everglades in Jeopardy: A Drama of Water Management and Endangered
Species,” Florida State University Law Review 27 (2000): 349-395
Jeffrey A. Hegewald, “Miccosukees and the Tamiami Trail Bridge: Examining the Tribe’s attempts to sink
the Modified Waters Delivery Project,” unpublished ms.
William L. Graf, “Water Resources Science, Policy, and Politics for the Florida Everglades,” Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 103, 2 (2013): 353-362
WEEK 6: 9/25 Water, development and resistance: the Narmada case
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Patrick McCully, Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams (London: Zed Books, 1996),
pp. 1-28
William F. Fisher, "Going Under: Indigenous Peoples and the Struggle Against Large Dams," Cultural
Survival Quarterly 23, 3 (1999): 29-32
Khagram, Dams and Development
WEEK 7: 10/2
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Dams revisited
Deborah Moore, John Dore and Dipak Gyawali, “The World Commission on Dams + 10: revisiting the
large dam controversy,” Water Alternatives 3, 2 (2010): 3-13
Brian D. Richter et al., “Lost in Development’s Shadow: The Downstream Human Consequences of
Dams,” Water Alternatives 3, 2 (2010): 14-42
Peter Bosshard, “The Dam Industry, the World Commission on Dams and the HSAF Process,” Water
Alternatives 3, 2 (2010): 58-70
Philip Hirsch, “The Changing Political Dynamics of Dam Building on the Mekong,” Water Alternatives 3,
2 (2010): 312-323
Robert Goodland, “The World Bank Vs. the WCD,” Water Alternatives 3, 2 (2010): 384-398
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John Briscoe, “Overreach and Response: the politics of the WCD and its aftermath,” Water Alternatives 3,
2 (2010): 399-415
Michael Goldman, “Constructing and Environmental State: eco-governmentality and other transnational
practices of a ‘green’ World Bank,” Social Problems 48, 4 (2001): 499-523
WEEK 8: 10/9 Democratizing water resources management
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Sarah C. White, "Depoliticising Development: the uses and abuses of participation," Development in
Practice 6, 1 (1996): 6-15
Bill Cooke, "Rules of thumb for participatory change agents," in Hickey and Mohan, eds., Participation:
from tyranny to transformation? (London: Zed Books, 2004), pp. 42-56
Andreas Neef, “Lost in Translation: the participatory imperative and local water governance in North
Thailand and Southwest Germany,” Water Alternatives 1, 1 (2008): 89-110
Jeroen F. Warner, “More Sustainable Participation? Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Integrated Catchment
Management,” Water Resources Development 22, 1 (2006): 15-35
Additional readings TBA
WEEK 9: 10/16 Water and collective action
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Ostrom, Governing the Commons
WEEK 10: 10/23 Water privatization
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Jennifer Davis (2005), "Private-Sector Participation in the Water and Sanitation Sector," Annual Review of
Environmental Resources 30: 145-83
Jessica Budds and Gordon McGranahan (2003), "Are the debates on water privatization missing the point?
Experiences from Africa, Asia and Latin America," Environment and Urbanization 15, 2: 87-113
David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters, eds. (2005), The Age of Commodity: water privatization in Southern
Africa (Earthscan), chapters 1 and 2
Karen Bakker (2007), "The 'Commons' Versus the 'Commodity': Alter-globalization, Anti-privatization and
the Human Right to Water in the Global South," Antipode 39, 3: 430-455
Karen Bakker (2013), “Neoliberal Versus Postneoliberal Water: geographies of privatization and
resistance,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103, 2: 253-260
Scott Prudham (2004), "Poisoning the well: neoliberalism and the contamination of municipal water in
Walkerton, Ontario," Geoforum 35, 3: 343-359
Wade Graham (1998), "A hundred rivers run through it: California floats its future on a market for water,"
Harper's, June
WEEK 11: 10/30 Water and equity
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Whiteley et al., Water, Place & Equity
WEEK 12: 11/6 Transboundary water conflicts
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Peter H. Gleick, "Water and Conflict: Fresh Water Resources and International Security," International
Security 18, 1 (1993): 79-112
Aaron T. Wolf et al.,"International waters: identifying basins at risk," Water Policy 5 (2003): 29-60
Wendy Barnaby, “Do nations go to war over water?” Nature 458-19 (March 2009): 282-3
Jan Selby,"Oil and Water: The Contrasting Anatomies of Resources Conflicts," Government and
Opposition 40, 2 (2005): 200-224
Franklin M. Fisher and Annette Huber-Lee, "Economics, water management, and conflict resolution in the
Middle East and Beyond," Environment 48, 3 (2006): 28-41
*** PAPER PROPOSAL & BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE in e-learning ***
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WEEK 13: 11/13 NO CLASS – RESEARCH
WEEK 14: 11/20 WORKSHOP ON ROUGH DRAFTS
*** ROUGH DRAFT DUE in e-learning ***
WEEK 15: 11/27 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING
WEEK 16: 12/4 STUDENT PRESENTATIONS
*** FINAL PAPER DUE Monday, Dec. 9, in e-learning ***
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