The literature on urban financialisation has prioritised the analysis of what finance does in the context of industrialised countries. This paper contributes to an understanding of what it is, and ...specifically how it emerges from the entanglements between the accumulation of intergovernmental debt, pricing and valuation practices – involving state and municipal utilities, regulatory agencies and consultancies – in the gradual transformation of shared into shareholder water governance in Brazilian metropolitan areas. Moreover, we provide a first illustration of how a more articulate approach between political economics and social studies of finance might contribute to an understanding of the making of urban financialisation, with a particular relevance for a context of less developed capital markets.
The reductionism promoted by modernity enabled a common sense as to what water was to be molded in the discrete form of H2O. Questioning that unique conception reproduced in studies of water ...resources and their governance, to the detriment of their multiple ontologies, was the starting point of this article. An analytical structure is proposed based on the reflections made by Political Ecology and the concept of the hydrosocial cycle. Unlike the naturalization of the hydrological cycle, it contemplates the multiple socionatural relations that constitute water. The aim of the proposed structure is to enable the apprehension of the hydrosocial cycle in time and space, in other words, its application in case studies. The reflection on a hybrid nature of water, duly considering the interactions between human and non-human agencies, provokes a critical look at modern reductionism on water, paying attention to the need to include other practices and epistemes, thereby contemplating a plural perspective on the issue.
Between 2013 and 2015, São Paulo experienced a major drought. With drinking water reservoirs reduced to 5% of their capacity, the water supply company, SABESP, implemented measures to reduce ...household water consumption, and the government of São Paulo state overruled watershed committees to prioritize the supply of water to SABESP. While attention centered on freak meteorological conditions, the management of water resources and water services also played a role; in particular the conversion of SABESP from a state utility to a mixed capital company in which the state government held a majority stake. As the crisis abated, the state government announced measures to increase ‘water security’, comprising water diversion infrastructure to increase supply alongside governance reforms to improve state-led responses. This paper examines the relationship between water security and water governance in the context of the São Paulo water crisis. We demonstrate how processes and structures that are broadly characteristic of ‘good governance’ both exacerbated the effects of the drought and constrained responses to it. We make two related arguments. First, the mutually-beneficial commercial relationship between the state government and SABESP was fundamental in shaping these dynamics. Second, the drought experience, shaped by these dynamics, has legitimized a shift back towards a centralized, top-down and supply-led approach to water. This is discursively framed as envisaging future ‘water security’, yet serves to enhance SABESP’s revenue streams, and consequently state government finances. We thus contend that the conventional view that good governance is conducive to water security needs to be reevaluated.
RESUMO Entende-se como governança da água um conjunto de processos e estratégias político, organizacionais e administrativos, dentro de estruturas previamente definidas, que conduzem a tomada de ...decisão. Essas decisões produzem escalas que vão além de unidades de planejamento de gestão e se constituem em redes de poder que articulam diferentes atores, de acordo com os interesses e objetos em negociação. Assim, entende-se que a governança da água extrapola as fronteiras físicas destas unidades de planejamento e assume configurações dinâmicas, flexíveis e multiescalares que refletem relações hidrossociais. Nesse sentido, o conceito de território hidrossocial, constituído a partir de redes multiescalares socioambiental e espacialmente delimitadas e ativadas para garantir o acesso à água, poderia fundamentar novas práticas de governança da água.
ABSTRACT Water governance is understood as a set of political, organizational and administrative processes and strategies, within predefined structures, that lead to decision-making. These decisions produce scales that go beyond management planning units and constitute networks of power that articulate different players according to the interests and objects under negotiation. Thus, it is understood that water governance transcends the physical boundaries of the planning units and assumes dynamic, flexible and multiscale configurations that reflect hydro-social relations. In this sense, the concept of hydro-social territory, which comprises socio-environmentally and spatially delimited and activated multiscale networks to ensure access to water, could provide the basis for new water governance practices.
We seek to advance a critical and relational concept of urban water security that theorizes urban processes in relation to the hydro-social dynamics that produce experiences of water securities and ...insecurities at multiple scales. Our intention is to set out an analytical framework that both examines the social relations that underpin water insecurity and goes beyond the urban as merely the context in which water provision and risk take place. We seek to mobilize this concept to envision meaningful water policies and hydro-social practices to enhance social equity and empowerment for urban communities.
The Brazilian Northeastern semi-arid region’s history has been characterized by drought, water scarcity, and poor living conditions. For the last 100 years, institutions have been established to ...support the state sector’s different attempts to solve the water scarcity and poverty problems in the region. In the Brazilian federalist model that combines centralized decision power with a decentralized execution of public policies, the federal government promotes large-scale infrastructure interventions, such as the São Francisco River Water Diversion Project (SFRWDP). This article aims to show how intergovernmental relations, under the Brazilian federal system, enable centralized decision-making processes. We will analyze the roles of subnational and national entities and the factors influencing their interaction. Even though decentralized participatory water institutions are in place, the federal government controlled and centralized the process of approval of the SFRWDP as well as its implementation and management. While federal agencies dispute control over decision-making processes and financial resources, the states lack financial and institutional capacity to use the power that is attributed to them by the Water Law. The persistence of a federal system that perpetuates the federal government’s central role and the interstates’ power inequalities, may continue to wreck any attempt to promote decentralization and subnational and interstate collaboration in the Brazilian context.
•MAD (Modular, Adaptive, Decentralized) water supply system prioritizes governance for equity, justice, and sustainability.•Governance challenges: decentralized models, decision-execution balance, ...collaboration amid power asymmetries.•SISAR in Brazil: successful community federations ensure sustainability of water supply based on collaborative principles.•SISAR challenges include water quality control, water treatment, energy costs, and creation of protective legislation.
While the MAD (Modular, Adaptive, and Decentralized) water supply system emphasizes governance for equity, justice, and sustainability, there are significant hurdles to overcome. Community engagement, the differences between decision- making processes and execution, and how to promote collaborative and collective practices in the context of unequal power relations are issues to consider. The experience on SISAR (Integrated Rural Sanitation System) in Brazil provides insights into addressing some of the challenges presented before. However, it is necessary to pay attention to water quality control, water treatment fragility, managing growing energy costs, and the need for supportive legislation to protect collaborative management systems and strengthen their foundations. The overall message is that while decentralized systems offer opportunities, careful attention must be paid to these challenges to ensure successful implementation and sustainable water management.
Abstract This article offers a review of the recent trajectories of political ecologies as communities of practice and movements for environmental justice, as well as a paradigm of scientific ...analysis. In this introduction to the 2021 special issue “Decolonial Insurgencies and Emancipatory Horizons: contributions from Political Ecology” of the Ambiente & Sociedade journal, we present a reflection on the contemporary socio-environmental reality, characterized by crises, environmental destruction, and climate emergency, focusing on the role of political ecology as a privileged space to critically discuss the socio-environmental relations that constitute new forms of violent appropriation of nature. Facing the tension of the current context marked by the rise of phenomena such as authoritarianism, climate change denial, and inequality, we highlight the construction of counter-narratives and alternatives that mobilize other horizons of emancipation and living projects through insurgencies and movements that emerge from the protagonism of marginalized populations and struggles for environmental justice.
Resumo Neste artigo, desenvolvemos uma revisão de percursos recentes das ecologias políticas enquanto comunidades de práticas e movimentos por justiça ambiental, bem como um paradigma de análise científica. Ao introduzir o tema em destaque de 2021 da revista Ambiente e Sociedade “Insurgências Decoloniais e Horizontes Emancipatórios: contribuições da Ecologia Política”, apresentamos uma reflexão sobre a realidade socioambiental contemporânea, marcada por crises, destruição ambiental e emergência climática, com foco no papel da ecologia política como um espaço privilegiado em discutir criticamente as relações socioambientais que se constituem em novas formas de apropriação violenta da natureza. Diante do quadro de tensão do contexto atual marcado pelo fortalecimento de fenômenos como o autoritarismo, o negacionismo e a desigualdade, ressaltamos a construção de contra-narrativas e alternativas que mobilizam outros horizontes de emancipação e projetos de vida por meio de insurgências e movimentos que emergem do protagonismo de populações marginalizadas e das lutas por justiça ambiental.
Resumen En este artículo, revisamos las trayectorias recientes de las ecologías políticas como comunidades prácticas y movimientos por justicia ambiental y como un paradigma académico. Introduciendo el tema destacado “Insurgencias Decoloniales y Horizontes Emancipatorios: contribuciones desde la Ecología Política”, presentamos una reflexión sobre la realidad socioambiental contemporánea, marcada por la crisis, la destrucción ambiental y la emergencia climática, centrándonos en el rol de la ecología política como espacio privilegiado para discutir críticamente las relaciones socioambientales que constituyen nuevas formas de apropiación violenta de la naturaleza. Frente a la tensión del contexto actual marcado por el fortalecimiento del autoritarismo, del negacionismo y de la desigualdad, destacamos la construcción de contranarrativas y alternativas que movilizan otros horizontes de emancipación y proyectos de vida a través de insurgencias y movimientos que surgen del protagonismo de las poblaciones marginadas y de las luchas por la justicia ambiental.
The literature on urban financialisation has prioritised the analysis of what finance does in the context of industrialised countries. This paper contributes to an understanding of what it is, and ...specifically how it emerges from the entanglements between the accumulation of intergovernmental debt, pricing and valuation practices – involving state and municipal utilities, regulatory agencies and consultancies – in the gradual transformation of shared into shareholder water governance in Brazilian metropolitan areas. Moreover, we provide a first illustration of how a more articulate approach between political economics and social studies of finance might contribute to an understanding of the making of urban financialisation, with a particular relevance for a context of less developed capital markets.
关于城市金融化的文献优先分析金融在工业化国家背景下的作用。本文有助于理解什么 是“城市金融化”，特别是其产生的背景，即在巴西大都市区水治理逐渐由共享型转变 为股东型的过程中，政府间债务积累、定价和估值做法（涉及国家和市政公用事业、监 管机构和咨询公司）之间的复杂相互关系。此外，我们首次论证了一种介于政治经济学 与金融社会研宄之间的、更加明确的方法如何有助于理解城市金融化的形成（尤其与欠 发达资本市场的背景相关）。
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