PREPARATORY MATERIAL

CONCEPT NOTE

CRITICAL HYDROPOLITICS AND CRITICAL WATER GEOGRAPHY: POLITICAL ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVES IN DIALOGUE  WITH GEO-POLITICS OF WATER

Narratives, Policies and Hydro-Social Lens:

Neoliberal Hydromentality; Informal Hydro-Citizenship; Hydrosocial Cycle; Procedural and Distributive Justice; Hydro-Hegemony; Civic Ethnography; Internal Colonialism. 

Stemming from the background of Political Ecology, the concept of Water Governmentality will be operationalized for the Italian case. Fragapane analyzes water scarcity in Sicily through the lens of neoliberal hydromentality and develops the concept of informal hydro-citizenship. She explores how citizens respond to unreliable infrastructure through kinship-based sharing networks and informal economies, illustrating adaptive practices shaped by uneven governance (Hellberg 2018).

The concept recurs throughout Panel 1, particularly in the works of Fragapane and Diantini, to describe water as a socio-natural process shaped by infrastructure, policy, and everyday life (Linton & Budds 2014).

Environmental Justice provides the analytical framework for a comparative study on the delta regions of Italy and the Netherlands, integrating procedural and distributive justice dimensions to examine inequalities in climate adaptation strategies (Schlosberg 2007).

Drawing on theoretical tools from Political Anthropology and Postcolonial Studies, Civic Ethnography reveals the symbolic and governance divide between central authorities and local communities in the Paglia River basin, critiquing top-down hydraulic planning as a form of internal colonialism (Scott 1998; Hecht 2012).

From the theoretical school of Critical Hydropolitics, Hydro-Hegemony theories are applied to analyze how state and private actors exert control over water resources in Basilicata, illustrating the region’s transformation into a sacrifice zone (Zeitoun & Warner 2006).

Finally, using analytical tools from Water Law and Institutional Economics, Marangi critiques technocratic governance by employing Ostrom’s concept of water as a commons, and advocates for participatory water management through the lens of socio-hydrology (Ostrom 1990).

Ideology and Nationalism in Euro-Med Water Security

Official Narratives and Discursive Politics in the Political Ecology of Hydropolitics in the Euro-Med Area 

Using discourse analysis, the workshop will address critiques of Morocco’s state-driven water discourse, highlighting blind spots in agricultural policy and illustrating how media narratives obscure structural overexploitation (Bakker 2012; Hajer 1995).

Moving into the field of Urban Political Ecology, Pourmohsen examines Istanbul’s infrastructural development and water scarcity discourse, revealing how urban megaprojects are framed as nationalistic and depoliticized solutions (Swyngedouw et al. 2006).

Within the realm of Political Economy, the governance of Water Public Services will be analyzed through the lens of re-municipalisation and service governance. La Vena explores water service management in Albania and North Macedonia through strategies of re-commoning and critiques of EU-led governance reforms (Lobina 2012; Bieler & Jordan 2018).

From the perspective of History of Technology and Political Ecology, De Luca’s analysis of the Swiss–Italian Valle di Lei Dam demonstrates how concession politics and value extraction constitute envirotechnical systems that reinforce spatial inequality (Pritchard 2011).

THEORETICAL LINKS WTH THE MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE PROJECT JustWATER

From the theoretical school of Critical Hydropolitics, JustWATER aims to enable the identification of hydro-hegemons in Italy in terms of virtual water management, water abstraction, water grabbing, and the export of virtual water from water-scarce hydrological systems.

Drawing from the political ecology of critical water geographers and from the tradition of development studies, JustWATER explores the possibility of establishing a common ground among these related disciplines.

First of all, JustWATER introduces a new terminology: Water Subalterns, or water subalternities, as an opposing and complementary concept to hydro-hegemony, promoting a shift of focus from power-exerting actors to power-receiving (or disempowered) actors within hydropolitics.

Secondly, JustWATER aims to map water bodies affected by over-abstraction, providing open-source and freely accessible geo-referenced data on Italian water bodies most impacted by water withdrawal. This research output allows for the identification of specific sites, in each region, where the pressure from irrigated water footprints is highest.

Thirdly, JustWATER undertakes a gendered analysis of water governance, management, and everyday practices in the water sector — including agriculture and migrant labour — focusing on the roles, presence, and political influence of both women and men in hydropolitical contexts.

PANELS WILL REVOLVE AROUND THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

• Is the European Water Framework Directive an appropriate instrument for the Italian peninsula, characterized by such diverse pedoclimatic and hydrological units? Is it suitable for the socio-economic context of the country?

• What are the main expectations regarding the new European Nature Restoration Law, the new EU Water Resilience Strategy, and the new European Pact with the Mediterranean?

• Which narratives are currently shaping national hydropolitics in Italy and in other European and Mediterranean countries?

• How can nationalism and ideology shape, or are they already shaping, new water security issues in Europe and the Mediterranean? Can socio-hydrogeology and the hydro-social approach help in understanding the Italian case?

• What is the role of agriculture in shaping national hydropolitics, and what is the role of food trade? Who and what are shaping water–food security in Europe and the Mediterranean?

• What is the role of agricultural exports in the use and exploitation of Italian water resources? (Presentation of findings from the JustWATER project)

• How do scientists communicate water, and how do politicians and the media communicate it? Is the science–policy dialogue working effectively for water?

• How are agricultural irrigation and soil–water management connected to the need to prevent and mitigate future droughts, floods, and landslides in the EU–Med area in the context of climate change?

• What is the political role of green water? (Practical examples from practitioners and hydropolitical discussion on green water, soil moisture, and their role)

• What is the role of women and men in the water sector in Italy and in other European and Mediterranean countries? Do we face gender and masculinity issues in the water sector?

• What similarities characterize water politics and policies in Italy and other European and Mediterranean countries? Is it possible to exchange examples and strategies from other EU and Mediterranean countries that could be applied to Italy?

• Cross-cutting themes: the WEFE nexus approach, climate change challenges and climatic hotspots, the role of desalination in the region, and the contribution of PRIMA projects in providing comparative appraisals.

References

• Allan, J. A. (1998). Virtual water: A strategic resource. Global solutions to regional deficits. Groundwater, 36(4), 545–546.

• Bakker, K. (2012). Water: Political, biopolitical, material. Social Studies of Science, 42(4), 616–623.

• Bieler, A., & Jordan, J. (2018). Commodification and 'the commons': The politics of privatising public water in Italy and beyond. Capital & Class, 42(2), 305–321.

• European Commission. (2025, June 4). European water resilience strategy (Commission Communication No. COM(2025) 280). Publications Office of the European Union. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52025DC0280

• European Union. (2023). EU Nature Restoration Law. Retrieved from https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/nature-restoration-law_en

• Giglioli, I., & Swyngedouw, E. (2008). Let’s drink to the great thirst! Water and the politics of fractured techno-natures in Sicily. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(2), 392–414. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00789.x

• Hajer, M. (1995). The Politics of Environmental Discourse. Oxford University Press.

• Hellberg, S. (2017). Water for survival, water for pleasure: A biopolitical perspective on the social sustainability of the basic water agenda. Water Alternatives, 10(1), 65–80.

• Hellberg, S. (2018). Water, life and politics: Exploring the contested case of eThekwini municipality through a governmentality lens. Geoforum, 89, 24–32.

• Hellberg, S. (2018). The biopolitics of water: Governance, scarcity and populations. Routledge.

• Italian Government. (2021). National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Retrieved from https://italiadomani.gov.it

• Kaika, M., & Swyngedouw, E. (2000). Fetishizing the modern city: The phantasmagoria of urban technological networks. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(1), 120–138.

• Linton, J., & Budds, J. (2014). The hydrosocial cycle: Defining and mobilizing a relational-dialectical approach to water. Geoforum, 57, 170–180.

• Lobina, E. (2012). Water remunicipalisation: Between pendulum swings and paradigm advocacy. Proceedings of Reclaiming Public Water Conference.

• Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.

• Pritchard, S. B. (2011). Confluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône. Harvard University Press.

• Schlosberg, D. (2007). Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Oxford University Press.

• Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press.

• Swyngedouw, E. (2009). The political economy and political ecology of the hydro-social cycle. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 142(1), 56–60.

• Swyngedouw, E., Kaika, M., & Heynen, N. (2006). In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism. Routledge.

• Zeitoun, M., & Warner, J. (2006). Hydro-hegemony – A framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts. Water Policy, 8(5), 435–460.

 JUST WATER - PROJECT RESULTS - POSTER PRESENTATIONS - FRANCESCA GRECO