2008 Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts Online Program

Paper Session: 5248 Water and Development: A Fluid Relationship II: Global discourses of water management is scheduled on Saturday, 4/19/08, from 10:10 AM - 11:50 AM in North Star Room #10, Westin, 7th Floor Sponsorship(s): Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group Water Resources Specialty Group Organizer(s): Farhana Sultana - King's College London Jessica Budds - The Open University Chair(s): Farhana Sultana - King's College London Abstract(s):   10:10 AM   Author(s): *Chris Sneddon - Dartmouth College  Abstract Title: The Globalization of Large Dams: The United States, the Third World, and the Geopolitics of Development, 1935-1975 10:30 AM   Author(s): *Philip Woodhouse - School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester  Abstract Title: Development and the 'water crisis': implications for best practice 'consensus'. 10:50 AM   Author(s): *Rachael McDonnell - University of Oxford Owen Horwood - University of Oxford Goranij Nonejui - University of Oxford  Abstract Title: Knowledge, Power and Policy Making Under Changing Water Governance Structures 11:10 AM   Author(s): *Olivier Graefe - University of Fribourg  Abstract Title: Water and development from a critical theory perspective 11:30 AM   Discussant: Carl J Bauer - University of Arizona   Discussant(s): Carl J Bauer - University of Arizona Session Description: Paper session (one of four sessions on Water and Development): The relationship between water and development is at the top of the agenda, in both academic and policy circles.  Much attention has been given to the ability of water to foster development, largely through the need to extend access to water - above all drinking water - to poorer groups in low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  At the same time, hazards research has focused on the power of water-related disasters, such as droughts and floods, to reduce the (potential) benefits of development to improve lives and livelihoods.  These two elements converge in the idea that we are in the midst of a 'global water crisis'. Drawing on various debates, the sessions explore and discuss the multi-faceted relationship between water and development in different contexts.  In particular, we wish to consider what these new insights can bring to bear on the multiple and contradictory roles that water plays in development, in terms of the power relations embedded within it, the meanings and discourses that are produced and mobilized, the styles of governance that are adopted, and the material outcomes of development interventions.

(53) 2008 Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts