Contested Knowledges

Work within this theme focuses on how knowledge interrelates with power and politics to shape water governance, control and use. We study how different ways of knowing and representing water are produced and in turn produce, reproduce and/or challenge class, gender, ethnic and political inequalities.

Research projects include the critical examination of  modernist water efficiency and productivity paradigms, valuation schemes, the use of models, technological and institutional innovations for small-holder farmers, local water and territorial notions, cultural water values, multiple ontologies of water and alternative ways of knowing nature and rivers. The focus lies on understanding how different ways of knowing and relating to water translates to different ways of governing water.