Fabienne Wateau

Water, societies and sustainability: A few anthropological examples of non-market water values

Abstract In a sustainable development research context, how can the anthropological literature on social management of water be reread? This article proposes to recall—in the context of a certain number of studied societies, in cases where water management is entrusted to local users—why and how the economic argument is not primary. It will then examine the nature of a possible link between anthropology and economics, specifically identifying differences in rationales, and inviting us to take a closer look at the most enduring technical systems, in their relationship to the land and to the people who use them.

Dam Projects and Protest: The Exception of Alqueva (Portugal)

With rising global awareness of the need for sound governance of water resources, the issue of dams has resurfaced with fresh vitality, now associated with the idea of clean, environmentally friendly energy. Long criticized for their irreversible impact on landscapes and communities, big dams now appear to be enjoying fresh consideration, at least when their effects on the planet are compared with nuclear power stations and other potentially more dangerous and polluting methods of energy production. The case of the Alqueva Dam in southeast Portugal lies in a particularly interesting theoretical interval: it simultaneously is an heir to the civilizing traditions of state development through access to water, a forerunner of the application of measures of public consultation and participation of the mid-1990s, and one of the most modern constructions for the storage and management of water in the early twenty-first century. However, some 8 years after its inauguration, the economic and social benefits of this extremely costly superstructure are far from convincing.

Construction de barrages, reconstruction des identités. Jeux de pouvoir dans la Péninsule ibérique

Dans le cadre d’une Europe en phase de reconstruction economique et politique, l’implantation d’infrastructures de taille, intervenant de facon irreversible sur le paysage, conduit aussi a des reajustements dans l’univers des relations sociales. Les regions et les localites concernees par les politiques du global, au regard de l’ethnographie recueillie dans la Peninsule iberique ces dernieres annees, sont amenees a repenser leur histoire et leurs particularites pour reaffirmer leur identite, ...