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Governance of water and development within the market: the social relations of control over water in the framework of Chile’s Water Code

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No. 59 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5370.2020.57717

Abstract

Through the application of “neoliberal” principles - private property rights, markets, and deregulation - the aim of Chile’s 1981 Water Code was to foster user investment in water infrastructure and efficiency in water use. However, the Water Code is increasingly being challenged over its association with the over-exploitation of water bodies for economic gain at the expense of human and environmental needs. Many analyses have examined how the Water Code affects water management but have paid less attention to water governance: the institutional structures, processes, and practices of decision-making around water. The aim of this paper is thus to analyse how the Water Code has configured governance, how this governance has shaped the social relations of control over water, and how these social relations of control over water configure the wider political-economic order of the country. While analyses of governance as the practice of regulation shed light on the nature and functioning of the Water Code, the paper argues that approaching governance as the process of regulation-making reveals the power relations embedded in the framework and how these have transformed water-society relations to privilege capitalist and elite power. Revealing the power relations in the design, implementation, and defence of the Water Code both reveals the limitations of existing proposals for change and indicates new avenues for hydrosocial transformation.

Keywords:

Neoliberalism, power relations, political-economic order, water resources.

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How to Cite
Budds, J. (2020). Governance of water and development within the market: the social relations of control over water in the framework of Chile’s Water Code. Investigaciones Geográficas, (59), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5370.2020.57717
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Investigaciones Geográficas
Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo
Universidad de Chile
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