November 28 @12PM Dunton Tower 1811
Join us with Meera Karunananthan to discuss how market-based solutions for water conservation promoted in global climate talks reproduce power asymmetries and legitimize the ongoing dispossession of historically marginalized groups.
Speaker Bio: My academic work is shaped by many years of experience in environmental and social justice organizing. Building on relationships with feminist, indigenous and environmental justice movements, my current research investigates the processes that produce uneven distribution of water in the global South. As a feminist political ecologist, I am concerned with the ways in which market-based solutions to climate change and drought reproduce power asymmetries and legitimize the ongoing dispossession of historically marginalized groups. Specifically, I examine the racialized, class-based and gendered impacts of privatization, and financialization of urban water systems.
Actions
Advocate for Policy Change: Push for policies that prioritize equitable water distribution and conservation methods that do not rely on market-based solutions.
Engage in Local Governance: Participate in local government meetings and advocate for water policies that consider the needs of historically marginalized groups.
Promote Sustainable Practices: Encourage and adopt sustainable water use practices in your community and personal life.
Organize Community Events: Host workshops, discussions, or film screenings to educate and mobilize your community around water justice issues.
Support Indigenous Water Rights: Stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities fighting for their water rights and support their initiatives.
Take one of Meera’s classes:
- FYSM 1107 Fall/Winter – Social Justice and the City
- ENST 2001 Fall – Sustainable Futures: Environmental Challenges and Solutions
- ENST 3500 Winter – Climate Action
Resource List
Meera’s Research:
Karunananthan, M. (2019). Can the human right to water disrupt neoliberal water policy in the era of corporate policy-making. Volume 98, January 2019, Pages 244-253.
Karunananthan, M. (2021). From kampung to courtroom: Feminist praxis and rights campaigns in poor urban women’s struggles for water justice in Jakarta. In Peake, L et al (Eds) A Feminist Urban Theory For Our Time. Antipode Book series, Wiley Blackwell.
Related Sources:
What’s the difference between climate change mitigation and adaptation?
CLIMATE ADAPTATION VS. MITIGATION: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
IPCC: Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation
CAFES Climate Misinformation Project
Other Interesting Sources:
Bakker, Karen. “The “Commons” versus the “Commodity”: Alter‐globalization, Anti‐privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South (2007).” The Globalization and Environment Reader (2016): 187.