ABSTRACT
The nexus as a concept is a compelling idea. This book has argued that the nexus needs to be reconceptualised, however, away from a technical solution to natural resource scarcity, which is apolitical in origin and intent, and towards a clear and articulated political choice about allocation and trade-offs between resources and the imagining of the future of water–food–energy systems and their interlinkages. The politics of the nexus need to be understood along three axis, politics of knowledge, politics of indifference, and international political economy and geopolitics. Current nexus policies reflect particular framings around technology, mass production, and water/energy/food securities, as well as specific environmental economic models emphasising efficiency and trade-offs. These framings are driven by food and energy needs that are centred upon a modernisation-biased urban-centric system, where production unquestionably is to serve these needs rather than also taking into account the consequences of these needs environmentally and socially.
