Guest Editor: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Fellow, The Australian National University
Abstract and brief biopic:
Full paper (within 3,000 words):
Email: 4 May 2007 30 October 2007
Kuntala.Lahiri-Dutt@anu.edu.au
Development is the flagship journal of the Society for International Development (SID) (www.sidint.org/development) published quarterly by Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Current editor, Wendy Harcourt, is an activist researcher based in Rome. Since 1957, Development has explored alternative perspectives on civil society, development policy, and community-based strategies for livelihoods, gender and social justice. It has a wide and varied international audience of activist researchers, academics, policy makers, members of community based and non-governmental organisations and the general public interested and working on development
Development is calling for papers for the March 2008 issue on ‘Water for People’. Kuntala ahiri-Dutt of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU and editor of such books as: Water First: Issues and Challenges for Nations and Communities in South Asia (Sage, New Delhi, forthcoming); and Fluid Bonds: Views on Gender and Water (Stree, Kolkata, 2006) will be guest editing this issue.
The focus of this edition is on how human communities shape the ecologies, histories, cultures and the politics of water resource development and planning at global, regional, national and local scales. In recent times, water resources have been at the core of contestations in every aspect of our lives: corporations and states claiming ownership, proclaiming a condition of absolute scarcity, predicting a bleak and gloomy future of conflicts necessitating strict policing to ensure security.
Our objective is to stand aside and critique these conceptualisations; to demonstrate that the various community-based, alternative water strategies exist in spite of the current efforts to turn this valuable resource into a commodity. For this special issue, we lay particular emphasis on seeing water both as the producer and product of human agency, as the basis and outcome of initiatives and alternative strategies of development. Water is much more than just an element of physical nature; it is part of our everyday lives and the cultural landscape, its uses and practices of management are rooted in history, and the control over it represents social and political power.
In the contemporary world too, ‘empires of water’ – resources owned by the states – are inextricably linked with national identities; yet all over the world, communities haveand continue to resist statist discourses of water control, and pursuing and practicing a diverse range of alternative modes of water management.
Development would like to invite interdisciplinary explorations from academics and
practitioners alike, who can offer new perspectives and insights, explore alternative theoretical models, and offer examples of projects that construct new meanings of water.
We are seeking papers addressing specific themes related to the current debates on water in accessible language, without tables, graphs and figures (unless absolutely necessary).
To be considered for publication you should send a provisional title and a 100 words abstract together with a short biographical statement to Kuntala.Lahiri-Dutt@anu.edu.au by 4 May 2007. If you are selected for publication the full paper should reach Kuntala by 30 October 2007.
Source: IISD newslists
Updated on 4/17/2007 1:01:25 PM.
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