The political ontology of collaborative water governance

ABSTRACT

This article examines the various definitions of, and analytical approaches to, collaborative water governance (CWG). While the concept’s usage has increased over the past decade, there lacks any deep engagement with the concept of the political at the heart of CWG. This article argues that contemporary approaches to CWG risk emptying the concept of its utility and coherence. Correcting this deficiency requires a focus on the social and ideational constructions of water. This will strengthen future collaborative water arrangements and enable deeper appreciation of the ways the political makes and remakes what is possible in water governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Water politics
• collaborative governance
• ontology
• hydrosocial

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Agranoff (2012) has argued that there are differences between these terms and that it is better to view them along a continuum of collaboration.

2. Similar trends can also be observed using other databases. Google Scholar lists 148 articles published in 1999–2015, 93% of them in 2009–2015. In 2015 alone, 27 articles dealt with CWG. Evidently, CWG has generated increased interest among academics, a trend that is indicative of the salience of the concept to ongoing approaches to managing water resources.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation, South Africa [78642].