The Shifting Geopolitics of Water in the Anthropocene |
| |
| Authors: | Afton Clarke-Sather Britt Crow-Miller Jeffrey M Banister Kimberley Anh Thomas Emma S Norman Scott R Stephenson |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA;2. School for the Future of Innovation in Society and Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA;3. Southwest Center, Journal of the Southwest, and School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA;4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;5. Department of Native Environmental Science, Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, Washington, USA;6. Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
