ABSTRACT
Focusing on the case of Turkey, this chapter assesses the extent to which participation of rural/local communities in water governance is possible. The specific examples of hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) and irrigation both shed light on the diverse ways that participation, or the lack of it, manifest themselves in the context of rural Turkey. By investigating participatory water governance across HPPs and irrigation schemes, authors have highlighted linkages between hegemony and participation. The two cases illuminate that water governance operates through different tools, strategies and discourses. Then the chapter focuses on irrigation management in Turkey by critically questioning the way decentralization is constructed and practiced in terms of the design of organizations and the power distribution within local communities. Finally, it traces the history of decentralization in irrigation management in Turkey and shows that it was introduced as a manifestation of the hegemonic understanding of water governance which seeks to render irrigation schemes more efficient.
