ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the rise in recent years of a variety of concepts that have assumed hegemonic status within discourses and practices associated with water governance. The notion of hegemony, while associated most closely with the writings of the Italian political philosopher and activist Antonio Gramsci, has come to refer to a wide variety of practices and ideologies associated with the power to influence decisions and patterns of thought. In the sphere of water governance, management and development, Robert Cox and Gramsci, and institutions often seem to establish and disseminate hegemonic concepts at a global level. The chapter establishes a common frame of reference for how the subsequent chapters of the book engage the notion of hegemony, and highlights the rise of the three hegemonic concepts specific to water governance: scarcity, marketization and privatization. It concludes by outlining the advantages of thinking about water governance in a way that foregrounds hegemony and hegemonic concepts.
