Water, knowledge and the environment in Asia : epistemologies, practices and locales / edited by Ravi Baghel, Lea Stepan and Joseph K. W. Hill.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Baghel, Ravi, editor.

Stepan, Lea, editor.

Hill, Joseph K. W., editor.

Series:

Earthscan studies in water resource management.

Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hydrology--Asia--Case studies.

Hydrology.

Hydrology--Social aspects--Asia--Case studies.

Water use--Asia--Case studies.

Water use.

Water use--Social aspects--Asia--Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (266 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London, [England] ; New York, New York : Earthscan, 2017.

Summary:

The dramatic transformation of our planet by human actions has been heralded as the coming of the new epoch of the Anthropocene. Human relations with water raise some of the most urgent questions in this regard. The starting point of this book is that these changes should not be seen as the result of monolithic actions of an undifferentiated humanity, but as emerging from diverse ways of relating to water in a variety of settings and knowledge systems. With its large population and rapid demographic and socioeconomic change, Asia provides an ideal context for examining how varied forms of knowledge pertaining to water encounter and intermingle with one another. While it is difficult to carry out comprehensive research on water knowledge in Asia due to its linguistic, political and cultural fragmentation, the topic nevertheless has relevance across boundaries. By using a carefully chosen selection of case studies in a variety of locations and across diverse disciplines, the book demonstrates commonalities and differences in everyday water practices around Asia while challenging both romantic presumptions and Eurocentrism. Examples presented include class differences in water use in the megacity of Delhi, India; the impact of radiation on water practices in Fukushima, Japan; the role of the King in hydraulic practices in Thailand, and ritual irrigation in Bali, Indonesia.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Preface

Chapter 1 Contextualising the Anthropocene: The cultures, practices and politics of water knowledge in Asia

Introduction

Epistemic frames and communities

Water knowledge in context

Case studies

Conclusion

References

Chapter 2 'If over a hundred Becquerels is no good, then what does fifty Becquerels mean?': Governing fisheries and marine radiation in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident

1 Introduction

2 Context

3 Relationships - who are the experts, and where are they located?

4 Water - limits to what can be known?

5 Discussion - epistemology in water governance

6 Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Notes

Chapter 3 Trans-disciplinary analysis of Australian-Indonesian monsoon epistemologies and their implications on climate change adaptation strategies

Scales at which the Australian-Indonesian monsoon is observed

Analysis of key variables

Discussion

Chapter 4 An epistemological re-visioning of hybridity: Water/lands

Introducing wet theory

Hybrid environments so far: Wading towards a wet theory of socio-natures

Bengal: The soft edges of a soaked land

Colonial separation of land from rivers

Conclusion: Critical environmental studies reframing ideas of hybridity

Chapter 5 Science as friend or foe?: Development projects undermining farmer managed irrigation systems in Asia's high mountain valleys

Fragmented scientific knowledge, policy and practice

Farmer managed irrigation systems in Asia's mountain valleys

Irrigation projects to 'support' farming communities

How science is undermining farmer managed irrigation systems.

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Competing epistemologies of community-based groundwater recharge in semi-arid north Rajasthan: Progress and lessons for groundwater-dependent areas

2 Groundwater dependence in Rajasthan's Alwar district

3 The Tarun Baharat Sangh programme of water management in Alwar Region

4 Review of outcomes in the Arvari catchment

5 Economic outcomes

6 A new epistemology of water in the Arvari catchment?

Chapter 7 Traditional knowledge and modernization of water: The story of a desert town Jaisalmer

2 Modernization of infrastructure versus complexity of understanding water

3 Introduction to Jaisalmer

4 Applied interpretive approach as a methodology

5 A collection of traditional knowledge around water

6 How did the traditional knowledge of water create unique hard and soft spaces around water?

7 Planning of the Indira Gandhi Canal project - Who defines Jaisalmer's water problem?

8 Conclusion

Appendix: List of interviewees

Chapter 8 The hydro-ecological self and the community of water: Anupam Mishra and the epistemological foundation of water traditions in Rajasthan

2 Water as an epistemological challenge

3 The work of Anupam Mishra

4 Water praxis and epistemology

5 Discussion and conclusions

Chapter 9 Epistemological undercurrents: Delhi's water crisis and the role of the urban water poor

The multi-dimensional importance of water

Epistemologies of urban development and governance in Asia

Water and fluid epistemologies

Epistemologies of world-class urban water

Epistemological undercurrents as systemic necessity

References.

Chapter 10 'Being-in-the-water' or socialisation through interactions with water in the thermal baths of Taipei

Situated consciousness of the body

The waters of Běitóu

Methodology

The settings - the multiple forms of, and interactions with, water

Interactions - towards an engaged presence

The image - from Taiwanese to plain touristic

Note

Chapter 11 In the eye of the storm: Water in the cross-currents of consumerism, science and tradition in India

Consumerism, science and tradition in India

'We are reducing people to beggars: Water is not free'

Sugarcane cultivation and India's water crisis

The Indian Premier League (IPL) versus sugarcane: A new 'urban bias' in action?

Chapter 12 Balinese wet rice agriculture in transition: Water knowledge between a sentient ecology and the pursuit of development

2 Wet rice cultivation and local ecology in Bali

3 Perceptions of water: A sentient waterscape

4 Green Revolution and agro-cosmologies in Wongaya Betan

5 Organic farming and sustainable development

6 Preserving local ecological wisdom

7 Concluding remarks

Chapter 13 Water flows uphill to power: Hydraulic development discourse in Thailand and power relations surrounding kingship and state making

Acceptance and rejection of the hydraulic society hypothesis

Wittfogel's hydraulic society hypothesis revisited and its pertinence to Thailand

Tracing the Thai King's fascination with water resources control and renovation of a theocracy

Emergence of the paternalistic high priest of hydraulic development

The hydraulic ruler's viziers and 'network monarchy'

Chapter 14 Waterscapes in transition: Past and present reshaping of sacred water places in Banaras

Framing Banaras through the lens of water

Banaras' waterscape and its evolution

Defining, directing, reshaping water: The case of Jñānavāpī

Epistemologies of water in Banaras: Provisional conclusions

Sources

Media

Chapter 15 Resettling a River Goddess: Aspects of local culture, development and national environmental movements in conflicting discourses on Dhārī Devī Temple and Srinagar Dam Project in Uttarakhand, India.

Srinagar Dam and Dhārī Devī

Comparison to Tehri movement and Narmada Bachao Andolan

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-134-86340-3

1-315-54316-8

1-134-86333-0

9781315543161