Repository logo
 

The Value Base of Water Governance: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Schulz, Christopher  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0206-2390
Martin-Ortega, J 
Glenk, K 
Ioris, AAR 

Abstract

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Some scholars promote water governance as a normative concept to improve water resources management globally, while others conceive of it as an analytical term to describe the processes, systems and institutions around the management of water resources and water supply. Critics often highlight how specific water governance scenarios fail to deliver socially desirable outcomes, such as social justice or environmental sustainability. While water governance is often perceived as a technical matter, its conceptual and practical components are in fact based on multiple values that, nonetheless, often remain implicit. The present paper seeks to uncover this value base and discusses existing research on values from multiple perspectives, using material from economics, philosophy, psychology, and other social sciences. In different disciplines, values can be understood as fundamental guiding principles, governance-related values or as values assigned to water resources. Together, they shape complex relationships with water governance, which from an analytical perspective is understood as a combination of policy, politics, and polity. Introducing a new conceptual framework, this study seeks to provide a theoretical foundation for empirical research on water governance processes and conflicts.

Description

Keywords

Values, Water governance, Environmental values, Water values

Journal Title

Ecological Economics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0921-8009
1873-6106

Volume Title

131

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Scottish Government Hydro Nation Scholars Programme