Multi-Level Policy Coalitions an Interpretative Model of Water Conflicts in the Americas

Abstract

This article proposes an analytical approach to conflicts and policy-making related to urban water management based on multi-level policy coalitions. This is necessary to articulate four main issues. First, the repositioning of social and political struggles for access to water, along with policy variables. Second, the analysis of the effects of ecological transition, including climate change. Third, the reincorporation of these struggles and challenges in a multi-level approach. Finally, the enquiry into the apparent contradiction, in contemporary policymaking. The article proposes a definition of multi-level coalitions as collective preference systems that influence the content of policies (ideas/advocacy, decisions, policy tools) and their implementation, groups of actors that arise from engagement in policy issues. In the first section, the article presents the objectives of research on urban water management in the Americas, within the framework of which this analytical approach by multi-level coalitions is fashioned. In the second section, the article details four analytical issues. In the third section, it gives a definition of multi-level coalitions.

Political regimes matter: Participation practices in the context of a competitive oligarchic policymaking in water management in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, 2007–2017

“…The structure of the coalition is multilevel (Massardier et al, 2016). Each level of action (and its organizations) produces its own autonomous effects on the policy process.…”

Securitização da política pública em Belo Horizonte e redes de financeirização

“…O termo coalizão é caro à literatura referente aos estudos dos Regimes Urbanos. Para nos remetermos à definição usada por essa tradição (Massardier et al, 2016), podemos dizer que se trata de uma congregação de determinados atores públicos e privados que se forma para desenvolver, aplicar e difundir um determinado tipo de política, e que é constituída por grupos em várias escalas, 7 compostos por atores que circulam em diferentes esferas e setores. As coalizões, deve-se ter em conta, são desenvolvidas por intermédio da mobilização que determinados atores sociais conseguem empreender na sua esfera de influência em torno de um determinado assunto de governo.…”

Water Conservation in Desert Cities: From the Socioecological Fix to Gestures of Endurance

“…As such, the article contains an overview of the most relevant historical moments in water policy in the Southwest of the U.S., and we specifically discuss the pursuit of water supply via "megaprojects" (JACKSON, 2008), and link these to the issues of Arizona. The article explains the implementation of water conservation in Arizona's cities and how this can be interpreted through the notion of socio-ecological fix, with reference to Arizona's hydrocracy, and water professional field (CORTINAS; O'NEILL; POUPEAU, 2018; see also MASSARDIER et al, 2016 for the concept of multi-level coalitions analysis). We conclude with a discussion of how water conservation is not only a fix, but also made up of relatively small efforts (compared to the megaprojects), that is, gestures towards sustainability.…”