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Recent waves of water governance: Constitutional reform and resistance to neoliberalization in Latin America (1990–2012)

Geoforum

This article critically investigates recent water governance shifts, particularly constitutional changes implemented in several Latin American countries that highlight a ‘right to water’ as well as recent efforts that invoke such a right in conjunction with bans on private water provision (e.g. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia). Drawing on legal research, document review, and interviews, the article investigates the historical, political and discursive scaffolding of these constitutional changes in several case study contexts, including attention to implementation issues and ongoing challenges following the reforms. Placing these shifts within the broader context of neoliberalization of water governance of the past several decades, the analysis attends to both the specific historical–contextual formations that are important to understand the constitutional reforms, as well as the ways these changes might be usefully understood as connected to broader political and discursive shifts and movements. Highlighting similarities and differences across the cases allows us to make conceptual contributions to debates on variegation of neoliberalized natures, as well as to discussions of alternatives to neoliberalism and postneoliberalism. We argue that although many of these reforms are partial, and not wholly resistant to neoliberalism, they are nonetheless significant for politics and debates related to ‘alternatives.’ Apart from resisting particular aspects of earlier neoliberal reforms, they are also important to stake new discursive and policy terrain on alternative priorities and uses of water. Further, the reforms also offer points of resistance to the influence of international financial institutions, or of transnational corporations. Copyright statement: “NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Geoforum. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 50, (December 2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.07.009 ¨

Latin America

Text

2013-10-22

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45341

Harris, L. M. and M. C. Roa-Garcia. 2013. Recent Waves of Water Governance: Constitutional Reform and Resistance to Neoliberalization in Latin America (1990-2012). GEOFORUM 50: 20-30.

Reviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/