ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 explains what a biopolitical perspective on water and water governance entails. As applied in this book, such a perspective critically scrutinizes water management systems in their attempts to govern life, in the distinctions they make between different forms of lives, what such ways of governing mean for people’s lifestyles and how they understand themselves and their (moral) responsibilities as humans/individuals/citizens. Recognizing this aspect of water governance means opening up the box of what water is and what water does, a research theme that is addressed within the frames of critical water research. The chapter gives an overview of how the power and politics of water have been understood and studied, with a focus on how meanings and representations of water and water problems are constructed, on the unequal distribution of both water and power, and on the productive effects of hydropolitical relations of power in terms of the creation of subjectivities. The chapter also provides an overview of the whole book.
