Publication Date
4-1-2024
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Water Security
Volume
21
DOI
10.1016/j.wasec.2023.100148
Abstract
“MAD Water” systems (modular, adaptive, decentralized infrastructures) will expand to meet human water needs under future climate change, migration, and urbanization scenarios. Yet the use of MAD systems often undermines water justice. Here we argue that identifying and analyzing moral economies for water can allow scholars to understand—and possibly predict—when and why justice in MAD water systems is upheld, breaks down, or becomes unstable. Moral economies are institutional arrangements in which shared understandings of justice normatively regulate the distribution and exchange of basic resources. We review the moral economies concept, explain an operational framework for analyzing moral economies, and use this framework to illustrate how moral economies function to uphold justice (or not) within three types of MAD water systems today: water sharing arrangements, informal water vending markets, and small-scale water commons. We show that when moral economies are embedded and operating successfully in MAD water systems, they can create check-and-balance mechanisms against injustice. But when moral economies are absent or failing, water injustices often prevail. The moral economies framework therefore provides not only a tool for theory building and analysis, but also a possible language and pathway for communities to organize for justice. We conclude by outlining key areas for future research.
Funding Number
BCS-1759972
Funding Sponsor
National Science Foundation
Keywords
Informal water markets, Informal water systems, MAD (Modular, Adaptive, Decentralized) Water, Moral economies for water, Water commons, Water insecurity, Water justice, Water sharing
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Department
Anthropology
Recommended Citation
Melissa Beresford, Alexandra Brewis, Neetu Choudhary, Georgina Drew, Nataly Escobedo Garcia, Dustin Garrick, Mohammed Jobayer Hossain, Ernesto Lopez, Elisabeth Ilboudo Nébié, Raul Pacheco-Vega, Anaís Roque, and Amber Wutich. "Justice and moral economies in “Modular, Adaptive, and Decentralized” (MAD) water systems" Water Security (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2023.100148
