Currents that converge: the theoretical debate on water. Interviews with Aziza Akhmouch, Jamie Linton, Naho Mirumachi and Mark Zeitoun

Abstract

There are probably few elements that are disciplinary as transversal and that are related to so many aspects of life - natural and social - as water. This circumstance has meant that the study of this element has been approached from various disciplinary fields and that there is an increasingly wide range of approaches around water, prioritizing various aspects in its research. It is precisely this theoretical diversity that is intended to be highlighted in this document. Being broadly reductionist, in general terms, it could be said that while the dominant approaches tend to have rather scientistic approaches and tend to approach water from also dominant perspectives of the economy, development, cooperation or conflict, other approaches — more critical— they tend to problematize the set of social relations, power relations, equality and inequality around water, and even the way in which societies understand and relate to it.

From this perspective, the objective of this document is to initiate this special publication on the study of water by outlining a state of the art, in which renowned scholars present the main aspects of their approaches and approaches to water, as well as the general lines of the current and future debates in this field of research. For its development, the Coordination of this issue of the magazine International Relations —formed by Eduardo Tamayo Belda, Aída Cecilia Acosta and Ana Isabel Carrasco Vintimilla— has asked the interviewed authors some questions from these debates, collecting the different approaches and proposals of analyzes that these researchers have returned in their respective interviews. The compilation and translation of these responses for publication in the issue have been in the care of Ana Isabel Carrasco Vintimilla.

In what follows, researchers Mark Zeitoun, Naho Mirumachi, Jamie Linton and Aziza Akhmouch respond to the approaches proposed for discussion by the coordinators of the dossier; You can see their resumes and main lines of research at the end of this document. Thus, Mark Zeitoun's responses refer especially to the field of water conflicts and power relations around water; the researcher Naho Mirumachi - which deepens from her joint work with Zeitoun - includes more specific aspects of cooperation, governance and hydro hegemony. Jamie Linton, for her part, addresses the questions maintaining the critical perspective of the previous authors, although focusing with special attention on the analysis of discourse and the study of social and political relations around water. Finally, Aziza Akhmouch presents the main approaches and aspects prioritized by some international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, it should be noted to the reader that these responses, in any case, general statements that propose a broad debate scenario — but not exhaustive — of the study of water and the aspects that are discussed and investigated around this element.