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. 2022 Nov 15;50(3):1125-1156.
doi: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2120810. eCollection 2023.

Riverhood: political ecologies of socionature commoning and translocal struggles for water justice

Rutgerd Boelens  1 , Arturo Escobar  2 , Karen Bakker  3 , Lena Hommes  4 , Erik Swyngedouw  5 , Barbara Hogenboom  6 , Edward H Huijbens  7 , Sue Jackson  8 , Jeroen Vos  4 , Leila M Harris  9 , K J Joy  10 , Fabio de Castro  6 , Bibiana Duarte-Abadía  4 , Daniele Tubino de Souza  4 , Heila Lotz-Sisitka  11 , Nuria Hernández-Mora  12 , Joan Martínez-Alier  13 , Denisse Roca-Servat  14 , Tom Perreault  15 , Carles Sanchis-Ibor  16 , Diana Suhardiman  17 , Astrid Ulloa  18 , Arjen Wals  19 , Jaime Hoogesteger  4 , Juan Pablo Hidalgo-Bastidas  4 , Tatiana Roa-Avendaño  20 , Gert Jan Veldwisch  4 , Phil Woodhouse  21 , Karl M Wantzen  22
Affiliations

Riverhood: political ecologies of socionature commoning and translocal struggles for water justice

Rutgerd Boelens et al. J Peasant Stud. .

Abstract

Mega-damming, pollution and depletion endanger rivers worldwide. Meanwhile, modernist imaginaries of ordering 'unruly waters and humans' have become cornerstones of hydraulic-bureaucratic and capitalist development. They separate hydro/social worlds, sideline river-commons cultures, and deepen socio-environmental injustices. But myriad new water justice movements (NWJMs) proliferate: rooted, disruptive, transdisciplinary, multi-scalar coalitions that deploy alternative river-society ontologies, bridge South-North divides, and translate river-enlivening practices from local to global and vice-versa. This paper's framework conceptualizes 'riverhood' to engage with NWJMs and river commoning initiatives. We suggest four interrelated ontologies, situating river socionatures as arenas of material, social and symbolic co-production: 'river-as-ecosociety', 'river-as-territory', 'river-as-subject', and 'river-as-movement'.

Keywords: Environmental justice; disruptive co-production; hydrosocial territories; ontological complexity; river commoning; translocal movements.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Möbius strip (authors’ own elaboration).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Movements’ epistemological responses to river domestication knowledge (authors’ own elaboration).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Riverhood ontological framework for research and action (authors’ own elaboration). NWJMs: new water justice movements.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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