Programme Content
Researchers and professors from different countries and prestigious institutions working on water (FUNCEME, UFC - Brazil, UNPSJB, INTA - Argentina; G'EAU, CIRAD, IRD, INRAe, MUSE - France), will share their experiences in original formats, oriented towards four principal subjects.
1. Models of water governance in the context of climate and sociopolitical uncertainties
Faced with the scarcity of water resources, agravated by climate change, societies have developed governance models, i.e. agreements between stakeholders to share this essential resource. Institutional governance mechanisms are diverse and continually changing. They evolve and are constantly challenged by climate change, economic trajectories and political changes, as well as by the strategies of social actors and the processes of legitimising rules. This theme will be worked on through thematic courses, which will allow us to understand the origin factors and current challenges of water governance, and through case studies of various countries facing water scarcity, in South America, Europe or the Maghreb. Students will thus get to know very contrasting governance models and discuss the advantages and limits of each one, as well as the lessons that this cross-reading will allow us to learn.
2. Territorial approaches to water and conflicts related to water
From a perspective close to Political Ecology, this theme is interested in the consequences of governance models in terms of social justice and the mechanisms of socio-territorial redistribution of water. In addition to scarcity of climatic and hydrological origin, there is also a social construction and redistribution of scarcity, the result of dominant economic and political ideologies and the appropriation of the resource by the most powerful actors. Considering the territorial dimension of water means understanding how individual and collective strategies are interacted (competitively or collaboratively) in order to guarantee access to the resource, water resilience and inclusive economic development. It also means understanding how certain infrastructures and governance rules favour some social actors over others. The concept of power and social inequalities related to water is crucial from this perspective, and is broken down into various dimensions: knowledge, infrastructure, resources and political processes.
3. Practices and social technologies for water care
In addition to the question of governance and the mechanisms for regulating practices and arbitrations between actors, there is also the question of "caring for water". What are the practices and strategies that the actors, who occupy more or less central positions in the governance systems, implement to take care of the quantity and quality of water resources? How do they manage situations of uncertainty, with a lack of control or limited control, to guarantee hydraulic resilience for different types of uses, whether domestic or economic. How effective are these practices and how can research contribute to their effectiveness? How does the territorial dimension interfere with these practices? "Caring for water" also involves a very important social and ethical dimension, which includes collaborative practices to share water and guarantee fair access for all according to the specific demands. Finally, reflection on "caring for water" also involves reflection on research practices and the need to "give a voice" to marginalised and invisible actors in governance, such as women, young people or small farmers.
4. Interdisciplinarity and participation regarding the role of knowledge(s) in water governance
This cross-cutting theme, emphasises the diversity of knowledge related to water and the need to develop interdisciplinary and inclusive (or participatory) research practices. The relationships between knowledge production and water governance are complex. If technical datas and quantitative indicators are massively used in water management in order to guide and justify decision-making, dominant ideologies select which knowledge and indicators are relevant, thereby marginalising other knowledge, metrics and epistemologies. It will be discussed how different types of knowledge (scientific, technical or local) about water quantity and quality are mobilised (or excluded) in management decisions; the interactions between these various types of knowledge; and the socio-political dimension of knowledge that is be mobilised in governance systems. Interdisciplinarity is emphasised as a knowledge practice that makes possible to broaden the field of representations about water and the possibilities for management. From this perspective, interdisciplinarity also appears as a challenge for democratising water governance. Research attitudes, particularly those of researchers involved in action-research (or transdisciplinary) projects, are another critical point, which will be discussed during the School.
These themes will be worked on theoretically, through case studies and applied exercises (serious games, social cartography, etc.) and subsequently in field activities.
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Choose one of these themes that best fits your research work, register and come along!