Inclusive recognition politics and the struggle over hydrosocial territories in two Bolivian highland communities

ABSTRACT

This article applies a multi-scalar approach to examine the dominant human–nature interactions that underlie recent formalization policies and the (re)configuration of hydrosocial territories in the Tiraque Valley, Bolivia. From a political ecology perspective, it seeks to examine how hydrosocial territories are (re)configured by Bolivia’s representative and inclusive discourses and forms of water ‘governmentalities’. It analyses how water territories are locally materialized by technological designs, legal structures and power relations that may promote unequal distribution of resources, water rights and decision-making power in conflict resolution processes. This article challenges ‘pro-indigenous’ and inclusive discourses that promote formal recognition of customary ‘water territories’.

KEYWORDS:

• Political ecology
• inclusive recognition politics
• hydro-social territories
• customary rights
• Bolivia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the generous support of colleagues from the Centro Andino para la Gestión y Uso de Agua (Centro Agua) in Cochabamba, Bolivia and for the cooperation of the peasants and families of the Tiraque Valley. This article was inspired in part by my interaction with the Justicia Hídrica (Water Justice) network, based in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Notes

1. Article 21 of the Irrigation Law defines registration as follows: ‘Registration: Administrative act by which the State through SENARI recognizes and assigns the right to use and exploit the sources of water for irrigation to indigenous and aboriginal peoples, indigenous and peasant communities, associations, and organizations and peasant unions, legally guaranteeing in a permanent manner, the water resources according to uses and customs.’

2. Potatoes that used to be grown at a maximum height of 3800–3900 masl can now be grown above 4000 masl. This increases water demand in the highlands. New crops promoted by the market can also be produced at high altitudes. Consequently, highland communities in Cochabamba that in the past lived mainly from cattle rearing today have become engaged in agriculture production (Director of the Integrated Watershed Management Program, 9 January 2012).

3. Some social activists and leaders of the Water War in Cochabamba also observed that many communities understand water registration as a water title, even though water within the communities is managed as a collective right. This development has been one of the main concerns by the opponents of the Irrigation Law.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.