Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of PowerTaking as his case-study the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, where 600,000 people lack easy access to potable water, Erik Swyngedouw aims to reconstruct, theoretically and empirically, the political, social, and economic conduits through which water flows, and to identify how power relations infuse the metabolic transformation of water as it becomes urban. These flows of water which are simultaneously physical and social carry in their currents the embodiment of myriad social struggles and conflicts. The excavation of these flows narrates stories about the city's structure and development. Yet these flows also carry the potential for an improved, more just, and more equitable right to the city and its water. The flows of power that are captured by urban water circulation also suggest that the question of urban sustainability is not just about achieving sound ecological and environmental conditions, but first and foremost about a social struggle for access and control; a struggle not just for the right to water, but for the right to the city itself. |
Other editions - View all
Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power Erik Swyngedouw No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
access to water Agua Potable areas average banana became bourgeoisie capital city’s clientelist cocoa consumption cost cultural Daule Daule River demand ecological conquest economic Ecuador El Telegrafo El Universo elites engineering environment environmental EPAP-G exclusion expansion FEDEBAS filling station geographical global Guasmo Guayaquil Guayas Guayas River increased increasingly infrastructure institutions invasion settlements investment issue labour Latin American cities litres loans metabolism million municipal nature nature’s water organized piped political ecology population potable water private water vendors problems productivist projects public water Quito rents result sanitation sewerage social power socio-ecological socio-environmental socio-nature socio-spatial Source strategies structure Suburbio sucres Swyngedouw tanker tanqueros Telegrafo tion transformation urbanization of water urbanization process Villavicencio water company water crisis water distribution water El Universo water politics water price water production water provision water scarcity water shortages water supply system water system water utility World Bank