What is water? : the history of a modern abstraction / Jamie Linton ; foreword by Graeme Wynn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Linton, Jamie.

Series:

Nature, history, society, 1713-6680.

Nature, history, society, 1713-6680

Nature | History | Society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Water.

Hydrologic cycle.

Water--History.

Water--Environmental aspects.

Water--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (352 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Vancouver : UBC Press, [2010]

Summary:

"We all know what water is, and we often take it for granted. But the spectre of a worldwide water crisis suggests there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way we think about water. Jamie Linton dives into the history of water as an abstract concept, stripped of its environmental, social, and cultural contexts. Reduced to a scientific abstraction--to mere H[subscript 2]O--this concept has given modern society licence to dam, divert, and manipulate water with apparent impunity. Part of the solution to the water crisis involves reinvesting water with social content, thus altering the way we see water. What Is Water? offers a fresh approach to a fundamental problem."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents:

Fixing the flow : the things we make of water

Relational dialectics : putting things in fluid terms

Intimations of modern water

From premodern waters to modern water

The hydrologic cycle(s) : scientific and sacred

The Hortonian hydrologic cycle

Reading the resource : modern water, the hydrologic cycle, and the state

Culmination : global water

The constitution of modern water

Modern water in crisis

Sustaining modern water : the new "global water regime"

Hydrolectics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-280-77789-3

9786613688286

0-7748-1703-8

OCLC:

799730045