Dear Colleagues,

Water is intrinsically contested and therefore political, meaning that it is part and parcel of arrangements of power and authority in human–water–technology associations and the activities and conflicts that take place within these socio-material arrangements. Based on this notion, this Special Issue will advance our understanding of water contestations and how they unfold through intricate socio-technical, socio-material and symbolic relations. All the papers in this Issue seek to study how socio-political processes and/or cultural–symbolic dimensions connect with physical–material expressions in everyday contestation over water. These contestations often involve disputes over water’s material distribution, its socio-normative and cultural organization, its political and technological control, its ontological definition, and over the worldviews that explain and legitimize the ways in which water and waterworlds are to be known and ordered.

The collection of papers will engage with a variety of current debates and theories on the politics of water, including issues that range from water as a human right, the politics of water’s nature, hydrosocial territorialization and the politics of knowledge to social movements and struggles for water commoning.

We are looking for both rich empirical case studies and theoretical contributions, as well as literature reviews, relating to the outlined topic. The Special Issue will aim to bring together perspectives and cases from across the world, contributing to the ‘political ecology of water’ as a field of engaged research and societal action.

Dr. Jaime Hoogesteger
Prof. Dr. Rutgerd Boelens
Dr. Gert Jan Veldwisch
Dr. Jeroen Vos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• water commons
• water collectives and co-governance

Title: Water contestations: Socio-technical entanglements, politics and social mobilizatio
Authors: Jaime Hoogesteger, Rutgerd Boelens, GertJan Veldwisch and Jeroen Vos
Affiliation: /
Abstract: ater is intrinsically contested and therefore political, meaning that it is part and parcel of arrangements of power and authority in human-water-technology associations as well as the activities and conflicts that take place within those socio-material arrangements. Based on this notion, this Special Issue will advance our understanding of water contestations and how they unfold through intricate socio-technical, socio-material and symbolic relations. All the papers in this issue seek to study how socio-political processes and/or cultural-symbolic dimensions connect with physical-material expressions in everyday contestation over water.These contestations often entwine disputes over water’s material distribution, its socio-normative and cultural organization, its political and technological control, its ontological definition, and over the worldviews that explain and legitimize the ways in which water and waterworlds are to be known and ordered. The collection of papers engages with a variety of current debates and theories on the politics of water, including issues that range from water as a human right, the politics of water’s nature, hydrosocial territorialization, the politics of knowledge, to social movements and struggles for water commoning

Title: Overlapping ontologies and translating knowledges. Reflections on building earthen dikes with smallholder farmers in Guinea-Bissau
Authors: Joseph Sandoval, Jeroen Vos, Marina Temudo
Affiliation: /
Abstract: The current conceptualisations of the divide between Western Scientific and Indigenous knowledge reflect constrasting persectives such as the ethno-sciences and the ontological turn. Critics of both frameworks highlight the risks of absolutising and isolating Indigenous knoweldge. In this paper, we provide a novel conceptualisation of the knowledge divide without absolutising and isolating Indigenous knowledge. We conceptualise by exploring the overlapping ontologies and dialogue between the small-holder rice farmers in Guinea-Bissau and researchers. An ethnographic study was carried out in two villages, each with a different ethnic group, and our findings show that ontological overlaps are spaces of shared understanding between Western scientific and Indigenous knowledge. We argue that Indigenous knowedge can be understood by Western scientific knowledge through prolonged engagement and it can be expressed in Western scientific ontology through knowledge translation. Moreover, we argue that Western scientific knowledge can be used to pursue agenda set by indigenous communities which can be identified through dialogue.

Title: Conservation strategies, urban water demands and hydraulic infrastructure as governmentalities that territorialize Ecuadorian páramos
Authors: Rossana Manosalvas, Jaime Hoogesteger, Rutgerd Boelens
Affiliation: /
Abstract: This article analyzes the contested nature of initiatives that aim to protect the paramos in Ecuador for both nature conservation as well as for the protection of water sources. The different schemes that are being implemented are critically analyzed showing the contradictions and local responses to these projects. Our analysis is based on the notion of territorialization which aims to undestand how specific actors aim to control socio-nature relations in a specific space. Our results show that natue conservation and the protecti on of water sources are intrinsically political projects that are based on and perpetuate power inequities between urban centres and rural areas

Title: Territorial autonomy and hydrosocial justice in the Paletara community in Colombia
Authors: Moritz Tenthoff
Affiliation: /
Abstract: In the lands of the indigenous community of Paletara in the department of Cauca, in situated in a paramo ecosystem. The territory of the indigenous community is enclosed by the National Park of Puracé, small hydroelectric plants as well as agro-forestry plantations. Proposals to participate in REDD+ or the payment for environmental services put additional pressure on the indigenous community, which has formulated a proposal to constitute themselves as Environmental and Territorial Authorities. Presence of illegal armed actors, the militarization of the paramo and violence excersied by workers of the forestry company are intertwined with this territorial dispute. In this context, the article answers the following questions: How violence, epistemologies and ontologies have been used as disciplinary techniques to impose land and water accumulation in the community of Paletara? Which ideas of hydrosocial justice exist within the community of Paletara and what possible conflicts may exist between these ideas? How territorial autonomy and river commoning have been strategies of the communtiy of Paletara to disrupt hydro-hegemonies and build territorial alternatives?

Title: The politics of dialogue and social mobilisation: A critical reflection from the case of the regeneration of the Taquara River, Brazil
Authors: Daniele Tubino de Souza
Affiliation: /
Abstract: This article critically reflects on the dialogical processes and their political dimensions in a grassroots movement for the socio-environmental regeneration of a degraded river, the Taquara River, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The study investigated the action of a local group, called "Taquara River Basin Working Group", composed of members of the local community, technicians from the government, as well as teachers, students, and researchers from local educational institutions. The interactions of the Working Group were guided by a dialogical process between the multiple actors involved, being based on the integration of local and technical knowledge and co-created actions aimed at improving the local socio-environmental conditions. The results of this study suggest that dialogue carried out in a climate of mutual trust was key to integrating the diversity of views and equalizing the different languages of a highly diverse group.

Title: River imaginaries and climate change adaptation
Authors: Lotte de Jong, Gert Jan Veldwisch, Lieke Melsen, Rutgerd Boelens
Affiliation: /
Abstract: Worldwide, rivers face challenges due to human and climatic pressures. Climate change adaptation projects increase the incentive to domesticate rivers, often legitimised through expert views on (future) vulnerability and risk. This emerging river imaginary dominates current debates in many rivers in our world. In this study, we approach river imaginaries as reflections of spatially bound hydrosocial territories in which multiple actors on multiple scales from multiples sectors operate to reach varying objectives. In the context of climate change adaptation, river imaginaries are strongly dependent on the extent to which climate change is expected to influence rivers through a mixture of probable, possible, desirable or preferable versions of a (future) river. As such, knowledge-structures of future making are scrutinised by emphasising on the role of change, the role of futures and the role of experts. This manuscript aims to elucidate how river imaginaries have influenced river management under climate change adaptation that resulted in large infrastructural projects and which other imaginaries exist. Through an empirical study of the Meuse river, we follow how a concrete case of a river imaginary came into being in the Dutch-Belgian Border-Meuse trajectory. The findings in this manuscript indicate that the dominate imaginary of technocratic and ecocentric approaches to climate change adaptation merged, and that the legal obligation for gravel mining in combination with an extensive normalising participatory process has been key to realise this adaptation project.

Title: Exploring Participatory Tools in Groundwater Management: A Case Study in the Bolivian Andes
Authors: Rodriguez-Levy, Inti E.1,2; Quiroga Eróstegui, Celeste3,4,5; Gruberg Cazón, Helga1,6
Affiliation: 1. Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo”, Centro de Investigación de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías, Cochabamba, Bolivia 2. Department of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium ORCID0000-0002-6231-5409 3. Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo”, Centro de Investigaciones de Ciencias Sociales, Cochabamba 4. Law and Development Research Group de la University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 5. The Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment ORCID0000-0003-4397-4545 6. Ghent University, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent, Belgium; ORCID 0000-0003-1723-6549, Cochabamba, Bolivia; hgruberg@ucb.edu.bo
Abstract: Water management poses complex sustainability challenges, necessitating the integration of advanced scientific methodologies and participatory approaches. However, in the vast majority of cases, the fields of engineering and exact sciences have not succeeded in adopting a comprehensive approach based on people, leading to a lack of consideration for the genuine requirements of stakeholders residing within the basins, thereby rendering them largely unnoticed. Within this framework, this paper aims to explore the utilization of participatory tools in groundwater engineering, focusing on a case study involving the construction process of the "Enhanced Algorithm for Recharge based on the Rainfall and Land cover Inclusion" (EARLI) model developed by Rodriguez-Levy et al. (2023). The study investigates the development and application of this tool in identifying potential groundwater recharge zones within a micro basin located in the Bolivian Andes. Grounded Theory Methodology was used to reconstruct the process´s timeline, identifying significant milestones that have influenced its development. Moreover, a comprehensive analysis of the employed participatory tools was conducted, highlighting their potential contribution to the complex science of integrated water management. The findings reveal that integrated water management presents a complex sustainability problem, requiring the support of sophisticated scientific methodologies, including participatory research tools. Notably, the utilization of social cartography, participatory transects, and the Delphi Method demonstrated their efficacy as participatory tools, enriching the multifaceted field of water science. This research contributes to understanding the sociotechnical aspects, political dynamics, and social mobilization inherent in water contestations.