Zwartveen Paper

Question 1

Where is the term water governance mostly used and what are their different connotations?

Answer 1

1 water policy circles

2. economicst and political scientists

Question 2

Main claims from Zwarteveen e

Answer 2

• Most papers are more concerned with promoting an ideal (ideologically
  motivated) type of water governance, rather than understanding what
  water governance actually is
• Water governance at heart is about political choices as to where
  water should flow; about the norms, rules and laws on which such
  choices should be based; about who is best able or qualified to decide
  about this; and about the kind of societal future such choices support
• Distribution as the basis of water governance (putting the focus on the
  question of equity in water governance)
  —– Distribution not only how water resources or services are allocated through
  interactions of humans and their biophysical environment
  ——- Equity as a distinct and central concern of water governance analyses and
  debates
• Distribution of (i) water, (ii) voice and authority, (iii) knowledge and
  expertise
• The role of context: How water-related costs, incomes, and risks are
  distributed is shaped by prevailing institutions and political–economic
  structures that are often marked by class, religion, gender, and
  ethnicity
  —— Actual water flows happen as the result of the always-evolving relations between
  people and their environment

Question 3

What types of distribution does Woodhouse mention from water governance?

Answer 3

• Distributions of water
• Distributions of voice and authority
• Distributions of knowledge and expertise

Question 4

Describe the distribution of water

Answer 4

 Distribution across several sectors & users
 Not just about water itself, but also include those about how laws and norms
justify patterns of access to water or water services

 Moving water “will almost always benefit some while depriving or
even harming others”
 Incl. distribution of water-related risks

 The need for interdisciplinarity: physical water but also equity

Question 5

Describe the distribution of voice and authority

Answer 5

 How voice, responsibilities, and authority related to water are
distributed in society

 The context of those included in decision-making
 The agency that different actors can exercise and stems from historically
produced norms, which are tied up with deeply ingrained social identities and
associated structures of authority

Question 6

Describe the distribution of knowledge and expertise

Answer 6

 Mutually constitutive relationship between power and knowledge
 Why some pieces of knowledge are or become more mobile, and which experts carry
greater authority than others and why
 E.g. export of the Dutch expertise

 How unequal distributions of knowledge and expertise are part of
broader structures of social and economic dominance

 Dominant perspective vs. other ways of knowing