Water scarcity, social power and the production of an elite suburb : the political ecology of water in Matadepera, Catalonia
Otero, Iago, 1981- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Kallis, Giorgos (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Aguilar Cestero, Raül (Centre d'Estudis sobre les Èpoques Franquista i Democràtica)
Ruiz Gómez, Vicenç (Col·legi Notarial de Barcelona)

Imprint:	Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals 2009
Description:	31 p.
Abstract:	This article investigates the history of land and water transformations in Matadepera, a wealthy suburb of metropolitan Barcelona. Analysis is informed by theories of political ecology and methods of environmental history; although very relevant, these have received relatively little attention within ecological economics. Empirical material includes communications from the City Archives of Matadepera (1919-1979), 17 interviews with locals born between 1913 and 1958, and an exhaustive review of grey historical literature. Existing water histories of Barcelona and its outskirts portray a battle against natural water scarcity, hard won by heroic engineers and politicians acting for the good of the community. Our research in Matadepera tells a very different story. We reveal the production of a highly uneven landscape and waterscape through fierce political and power struggles. The evolution of Matadepera from a small rural village to an elite suburb was anything but spontaneous or peaceful. It was a socio-environmental project well intended by landowning elites and heavily fought by others. The struggle for the control of water went hand in hand with the land and political struggles that culminated - and were violently resolved - in the Spanish Civil War. The displacement of the economic and environmental costs of water use from few to many continues to this day and is constitutive of Matadepera's uneven and unsustainable landscape. By unravelling the relations of power that are inscribed in the urbanization of nature (Swyngedouw, 2004), we question the perceived wisdoms of contemporary water policy debates, particularly the notion of a natural scarcity that merits a technical or economic response. We argue that the water question is fundamentally a political question of environmental justice; it is about negotiating alternative visions of the future and deciding whose visions will be produced.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús de Creative Commons, amb la qual es permet copiar, distribuir i comunicar públicament l'obra sempre que se'n citin l'autor original, la universitat i l'institut i no se'n faci cap ús comercial ni obra derivada, tal com queda estipulat en la llicència d'ús
Language:	Anglès
Series:	Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals. Working Papers on Environmental Sciences
Series:	Working Papers on Environmental Sciences ;
Document:	Working paper
Subject:	Aigua ; Història ; Utilització ; Matadepera (Catalunya) ; Urbanisme ; Aspectes ambientals ; Abastament ; Aspectes econòmics ; Història local

31 p, 537.5 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Arts and Humanities > Centre d'Estudis sobre dictadures i democràcies (CEDID-UAB)
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Research literature > Working papers