Opposing Currents: The Politics of Water and Gender in Latin America (review)

This edited collection contains a series of case studies which bring together themes surrounding women, gender and water resources management in Latin America. Taking the crisis in the water sector in Latin America as a starting point, this text focuses on the gendered dimensions of water resources management in the context of neoliberalism and political resistance to this economic order. After three introductory chapters which outline some of the conceptual debates and issues surrounding gender and water resources management, the text adopts a case study approach with material from a number of Latin American countries written by a diverse range of researchers. These case studies are divided into three conceptual areas: neoliberal policies and their social impact; technology transfer and their social impact; participation and cultural change.

The introductory chapters reiterate (usefully) the debates on the importance of gender analysis when attempting to bring about more effective environmental resource management and the need to make the links between gender and water explicit. The authors point out some of the cultural factors and biases that lead to a neglect of gender in water management policies, particularly with respect to agriculture and irrigation policy, as well as the neglect of water in gender policies. The material outcomes of these concerns are amply demonstrated through the case studies that follow. These chapters highlight in particular women's role as water users and managers, the ways in which they are able to participate in management and the cultural, social and economic constraints which often stand in the way of more effective participation. However, they also demonstrate the strength of popular and collective resistance in the face of water mobilization in which women often play a key role. A distinctive feature of water protests in Latin America is that they often tend to mobilize social actors not previously active in political struggles and deploy new forms of public participation and civil disobedience which prove highly effective.

The book as a whole has a number of strengths. First, it demonstrates that those people and places commonly assumed to be excluded from processes of globalization are very implicated in them and are shaping the global in creative and decisive ways from their distinct localities. The struggles are hugely complex and the setbacks serious, and women in particular seem to face particular constraints and barriers to greater public participation. However, it is clear the neoliberal model is on increasingly shaky and contested ground and water mobilizations (and women) are playing a key role in that political contestation. Second, the collection has a deconstructive impact on many of the gendered binaries that are part of conventional approaches to water resources management. Binary thinking does not only overlook women's roles as farmers, irrigators and resource managers, but also assumes a simplistic division between the varied uses of water instead of focusing on the interconnections. In this regard, the connections between water rights and land rights are also illuminated. For this reviewer, the book's main strength is that it is highly accessible yet resists the usual essentialisms, generalizations and simplifications which tend to abound in this kind of work.

This text is of use for all those with a scholarly interest in natural resource management. The case studies and conceptual material would provide useful course material for both lower level and upper level geography and development studies students. I would also recommend it as useful reading for engineers and planners working in water resources management who are attempting to avoid a narrow technocratic approach to their work and who wish to broaden their understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of water use.