ABSTRACT
The argument that the ongoing water sector reforms are a specific manifestation of the process of neoliberalization at work in many parts of the world since the 1980s has been made not only in the context of changes in the water sector, but also with respect to changes in a variety of realms ranging from other natural resources such as forests to health, education, banking, etc. In developmental economics, for instance, the question of whether production should take place on a small scale or on a large scale has been the subject of much debate. The global–local dualism has also evoked another kind of response. For social theorists engaged in understanding the process of change as well as activists seeking to bring about change, engagement with “the state”—whether seen as an abstract entity, or whether taking on the concrete forms of a national government, provincial government, specific departments, or particular bureaucratic officials—is inevitable.
