CEDAR/PERG Seminar

Jamie Linton
Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Canada

The hydrological cycle and the hydrosocial cycle

As a way of conceptualizing the natural water process, the hydrological cycle emerged in a particular set of historical circumstances. The seminar describes the history of this concept and its convenience to the ‘state-hydraulic paradigm’ that characterized water management in the 20th century. As new modes of water governance arise to challenge the state-hydraulic paradigm, historical circumstances are conducive to alternate ways of conceptualizing the water process. We will consider the ‘hydrosocial cycle’ as such an emerging concept. The hydrosocial cycle contrasts with the hydrological cycle by, among other things, integrating the social and the hydrological in a single process by which water both makes history and is the product of history. Whereas the hydrological cycle corresponds to the hydrological sciences and to the practice of water management, the hydrosocial cycle corresponds to studies in the history and political ecology of water and to emerging ideas and practices of water governance.

Drawing on his book: What is Water: The History of a Modern Abstraction, UBC Press, 2010

Tuesday, 14th June
4-6pm
11, Bedford Square (on corner of Gower Street & Montague Place)
Bloomsbury
London 

ALL WELCOME
For further information, please contact Dr Alex Loftus: [log in to unmask]


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