Value of Water: Political Ecology and Water Reform in Southern Africa

Derman, Bill, Ferguson, Anne, Human Organization

Our study draws attention to the multiple ways water is "valued" in international, national, and local discourses and how these different dialogues are used by actors to position themselves and their interests in Zimbabwe's water reform process. It raises questions concerning the liberatory nature of Zimbabwe's supposed populist political agenda in land and water reform. Water reform in Zimbabwe serves as a means of demonstrating the grounded, decentered, and engaged approach of political ecology. Focusing only on one pervasive discourse, such as neoliberal economic policy or the growing scarcity of water, and studying its effects on people and the environment, misses much of the …

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Publication information: Article title: Value of Water: Political Ecology and Water Reform in Southern Africa. Contributors: Derman, Bill - Author, Ferguson, Anne - Author. Journal title: Human Organization. Volume: 62. Issue: 3 Publication date: Fall 2003. Page number: 277. © Society of Applied Anthropology Winter 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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