The School of Water Governance
Fundamentals of Water Governance
This course offers an in-depth exploration of the principles and structures that shape water governance. It aims to provide participants with a solid understanding of how water systems are managed, the challenges involved, and the frameworks that guide decision-making. By engaging with key topics, learners will develop a nuanced perspective on the complexities of water governance and its role in addressing societal and environmental needs.
The lessons begin with an examination of water governance and politics, highlighting the influence of power relations, policies, and the roles of diverse stakeholders in shaping outcomes. This is followed by an exploration of participatory and multi-level governance, emphasizing the value of collaboration across governmental levels, communities, and organizations. The course also delves into water governmentalities, unpacking the practices and institutional dynamics that govern water resources and how these are influenced by cultural and regulatory contexts. Finally, the focus shifts to urban water management in “Water and the City,” addressing issues such as infrastructure, equitable access, and the pressures of urbanization.
This course is designed for anyone looking to enhance their understanding of water governance, offering practical insights and critical perspectives to engage effectively in the field.
Course Provider
The detailed information about each instructor involved in this course is provided in each lesson.
NEWAVE e-Lecture Series
This course is part of the NEWAVE e-Lecture Series on Water Governance Theoretical Perspectives. This online training module is designed to engage the NEWAVE Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) and the wider public in interactive, thought-provoking discussions on various water governance theoretical perspectives. Learn more about the e-lecture series here (Link).
Course Content
Water governance and politics – Prof. Jampel Dell’Angelo
What is ‘water governance’? How do you define it? How does politics shape water governance genesis and dynamics? This introductory talk will start the conversation on different theoretical debates and areas of focus that characterize the vibrant transdisciplinary arena of water governance. Some foundational theoretical perspectives will be introduced and different cases of competition and cooperation over water resources on multiple scales will be illustrated as examples of the complex socio-hydrological interactions that playout in the real world.
Instructor: Prof. Jampel Dell’Angelo
Jampel Dell’Angelo is Associate Professor with ius promovendi of Water Governance and Politics in the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is an environmental social scientist interested in the political economy of naturalresources, in particular water.
Since 2021 he serves as Editor-in-Chief of World Development. His research is on the multilevel dimensions of cooperation and conflict over freshwater resources. The focus of his research spans from socio-environmental dynamics of climate change adaption in community irrigation schemes of rural Kenya to global patterns of virtual water appropriation associated with transnational land investments. He employs mixed methods and builds on theoretical pluralism combining perspectives from the Bloomington School of Political Economy and the Barcelona School of Political Ecology. Believing in the necessity to conduct true interdisciplinary research to tackle complex water governance problems he draws on a socio-environmental synthesis approach.
Dell’Angelo is a Visiting Scholar and Member of the Ecohydrology Lab in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Environmental Governance Affiliate Scholar at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), Maryland.
Recommended readings: Water governance and politics
References:
- Woodhouse, P., & Muller, M. (2017). Water Governance—An Historical Perspective on Current Debates. World Development. Elsevier Ltd.
- Dell’Angelo, J., McCord, P. F., Gower, D., Carpenter, S., Caylor, K. K., & Evans, T. P. (2016). Community water governance on Mount Kenya: an assessment based on Ostrom’s design principles of natural resource management. Mountain Research and Development, 36(1), 102-115.
- Dell’Angelo, J., D’Odorico, P., & Rulli, M. C. (2018). The neglected costs of water peace. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 5(6), e1316.
- Wolf, A. (2007). Shared Waters: Conflict and Cooperation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 32, 241-269.
- McCord, P., Dell’Angelo, J., Baldwin, E., & Evans, T. (2017). Polycentric transformation in Kenyan water governance: A dynamic analysis of institutional and social‐ecological change. Policy Studies Journal, 45(4), 633-658.
- Dell’Angelo, J., Rulli, M. C., & D’Odorico, P. (2018). The global water grabbing syndrome. Ecological Economics, 143, 276-285.
Participatory and multi-level water governance – Prof. Jens Newig
Sustainable water governance relies on a range of principles, among which is collaborative and participatory governance in multi-level and scale adapted system. The participation of citizens and of societal stakeholders into water-related public decision making is expected to improve decision outputs and outcomes, e.g. by incorporating local knowledge, or by allowing for conflict resolution and better accepted decisions. Multi-level systems of water governance, which are ideally tailored to the spatial scale of the water system (e.g. a river basin), have long been touted to facilitate communication among riparian jurisdictions and to advance sustainable solutions. While important in their own right, participation and multi-level governance are also not independent of each other. We will first discuss participation and multi-level governance separately, then in conjunction, and close by illustrating how these principles work in practice from research into the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. While widely applied in practice, it is still an open question of whether participation, multi-level and scale-adapted water governance will serve as game changers to solving the globe’s pressing water problems.
Instructor: Prof. Jens Newig
Jens Newig is full Professor of Governance and Sustainability at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. He is member of the Faculty of Sustainability and of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and director of Leuphana’s Institute for Sustainability Governance (INSUGO). A geo-ecologist by training with a doctoral degree in Law and an Habilitation in political science and systems science, Jens is now engaging in inter- and transdisdisciplinary governance research. Building on research projects funded inter alia by the European Research Council or the German Research Foundation, Jens and his team have published widely on issues of water governance, participatory, collaborative and globalized environmental and sustainability governance, aspiring produce but also to cumulate evidence in the field.
Recommended readings: Participatory and multi-level water governance
References:
- Moss, T. (2003.) Solving Problems of ‘Fit’ at the Expense of Problems of ‘Interplay’? The Spatial Reorganisation of Water Management following the EU Water Framework Directive, in How Institutions change. Perspectives on Social Learning in Global and Local Environmental Contexts, eds. H. Breit, A. Engels, T. Moss and M. Troja. Opladen: Leske + Budrich: 85-121.
- Moss, T. and J. Newig. (2010). Multilevel water governance and problems of scale: Setting the stage for a broader debate. Environmental Management 46 (1): 1-6.
- Newig, J. and T.M. Koontz. (2014).’Multi-level governance, policy implementation and participation: the EU’s mandated participatory planning approach to implementing environmental policy. Journal of European Public Policy 21 (2): 248-67.
- Newig, J., D. Schulz and N.W. Jager. (2016). Disentangling Puzzles of Spatial Scales and Participation in Environmental Governance – The Case of Governance Re-scaling Through the European Water Framework Directive. Environmental Management 58 (6): 998-1014.
- Newig, J., E. Challies, N.W. Jager, E. Kochskämper and A. Adzersen. (2018). The Environmental Performance of Participatory and Collaborative Governance: A Framework of Causal Mechanisms. Policy Studies Journal 46 (2): 269-97
Water and the City: a history of urban metabolism – Prof.Maria Kaika
David Harvey notes that there is nothing unnatural about New York. Cities are the product of natural processes, human metabolism, human labor, capital investment and social relations of power. Water lies at the centre of urban metabolism. This lecture examines how the quest to conquer and dominate water resources played a primary role in the development of urban environments. From Bazalgette’s iconic sewage project that made London functional again after recurrent cholera epidemics, to Moussolini’s water-eating machines that turned Italy’s swamps into glistering new towns, we shall examine how, throughout modernity, practices of control and technologically advanced distribution networks (plumbing, sewage, flood control systems, etc.) were essential for sustaining the urbanization process. Without the control of the metabolic flows of water, cities could not have developed the way they have.
Instructor: Prof. Maria Kaika
Maria Kaika holds a PhD from Oxford University, and an MA in Architecture and Planning from the National Technical University of Athens. She is Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2019/20), and Chair in Urban Regional and Environmental Planning, at the University of Amsterdam. She has taught at the Universities of Oxford (tenured), Manchester (tenured) Paris Est (LATTS), KULeuven, University of London and TU Vienna. Her international academic roles include: panel member of the European Research Council (ERC SH2), high level foreign expert of the Belgian Science Policy Office in Humanities, Chief co-Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. (2010-2017), elected Professor of the City of Vienna (2013). Her research focuses on three interrelated themes: urban political ecology, cities crisis and land financialization, and urban radical imaginaries. She has been awarded funding from national and international research councils including the British Academy, EU Frameworks, and Marie Curie ITN. Maria Kaika is author of many academic articles and books including: City of Flows: Modernity, Nature and the City (2005; Routledge, New York) In the Nature of Cities: urban political ecology and the metabolism of urban environments (2006; Routledge, London with N Heynen and E Swyngedouw) The political ecology of Austerity (2020 Routledge London, with R Calvario and G Velegrakis).
Recommended readings: Water and the City: a history of urban metabolism
References:
- Kaika, Maria. (2004). Interrogating the Geographies of the Familiar: Domesticating Nature and Constructing the Autonomy of the Modern Home. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28(2):265-86.
- Kaika, Maria. (2017). Don’t call me Resilient Again! The New Urban Agenda as Immunology … or what happens when communities refuse to be vaccinated with ‘smart cities’ and indicators. Environment and Urbanization 29(1):89-102.
- Kaika, Maria, and Erik Swyngedouw. (2000). Fetishising the Modern City: the Phantasmagoria of Urban Technological Networks. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24(1):120-38.
- Kaika, Maria. (2006). Dams as symbols of modernization: the urbanization of nature between geographical imagination and materiality.Annals, Association of American Geographers 96(2):276-301.
- Caprotti, Federico, and Maria Kaika. (2008). City and Nature: ideology and representation in fascist New Towns. Social and Cultural Geography 9 (6):613-34.