Water, Technology and the Nation-State (Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management)

Water, Technology and the Nation-State is an extraordinary and path-breaking master piece on the political ecologies of state-production and resistance -- intellectually rich, socially urgent and politically highly revealing. The book presents a careful, critical analysis of how flows of water and power interconnect technology, nature and society. In a sophisticated way, Menga, Swyngedouw, and their impressive assemblage of authors, scrutinize and illuminate the multi-dimensional interdependence among technological trajectories, hydro-territorial configurations and nation-state building. Constituting a powerful critique of neoliberal water governance and water's de-politicizing expert-thinking, the book also offers crucial water-for-thought for building alternative hydrosocial territories. - Rutgerd Boelens, CEDLA/University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The world's water crisis is not only an issue of physical scarcity and declining water quality, rather it is a complex suite of social, political, and economic issues that are deeply rooted in power and the state. Menga and Swyngedouw's thought-provoking edited volume brings together a highly talented and diverse group of scholars and practitioners that explore the inter-connection between water, technology and the nation-state. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in transcending national rhetoric around water, and working towards water justice and equity. - Emma S. Norman, Northwest Indian College, USA

Water, Technology and the Nation-State arrives at an opportune time for water-society scholars and practitioners interested in the profound ways that technological innovations have concurrently shaped waterscapes, state practices, and national identities over the past several decades. A diverse group of critical thinkers infuse cases of large-scale infrastructure development--spanning Asia, the Middle East, North America, Europe, and East Africa-with novel and incisive analyses of how water technologies are always and everywhere political and often fundamental to the exercise of state power. Combining conceptual muscle with heretofore rare case studies, this volume adds immeasurably to theories of state-nature relations and offers concrete instances of the myriad ways that dams, irrigation and hydropower have become hegemonic, and often domineering, technological interventions in human relations with water. - Christopher S. Sneddon, Dartmouth College, USA