Rich people’s water: Perrier, cosmopolitanism and drinkers of bottled water

Wateau, Fabienne

doi:10.4000/ateliers.9802

Cited by 2 publications

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“…This appeal to nationalism and national identity should technically be regulated as national symbols are supposed to be for strict government usage, but as this case shows, regulatory enforcement of these standards fails quite often. French bottled water sellers have also harnessed the popular appeal that global perceptions of French sophistication has as a brand [65].…”

Section: Regulating Branding and Infrastructure In Weak Regulatory Rementioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)theorizing the Politics of Bottled Water: Water Insecurity in the Context of Weak Regulatory Regimes

Pacheco-Vega

2019

Water

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Water insecurity in developing country contexts has frequently led individuals and entire communities to shift their consumptive patterns towards bottled water. Bottled water is sometimes touted as a mechanism to enact the human right to water through distribution across drought-stricken or infrastructure-compromised communities. However, the global bottled water industry is a multi-billion dollar major business. How did we reach a point where the commodification of a human right became not only commonly accepted but even promoted? In this paper, I argue that a discussion of the politics of bottled water necessitates a re-theorization of what constitutes “the political” and how politics affects policy decisions regarding the governance of bottled water. In this article I examine bottled water as a political phenomenon that occurs not in a vacuum but in a poorly regulated context. I explore the role of weakened regulatory regimes and regulatory capture in the emergence, consolidation and, ultimately, supremacy of bottled water over network-distributed, delivered-by-a-public utility tap water. My argument uses a combined framework that interweaves notions of “the political”, ideas on regulatory capture, the concept of “the public”, branding, and regulation theory to retheorize how we conceptualize the politics of bottled water.

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Section: Regulating Branding and Infrastructure In Weak Regulatory Rementioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)theorizing the Politics of Bottled Water: Water Insecurity in the Context of Weak Regulatory Regimes

Pacheco-Vega

2019

Water

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How is a bottled water market created?

Brei

2017

WIREs Water

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From the 1940s until 2015, while the French population grew 60%, the bottled water per capita consumption grew 2350%, from 6 L to about 140 L per person, per year. These figures rank France as one of the biggest bottled water markets in the world. Contrary to other top water markets, most of France's population has access to good quality tap water, which is trusted and consumed by most of its citizens. I explain this paradox, analyzing the creation and development of the French bottled water market. Based on data on the history of mineral water, marketing, and consumer behavior, I describe the origins and development of this market, highlighting the most important historical events and laws that created the economic and political conditions that shaped its structure and regulation. I analyze the influence of food and beverage groups like Nestlé, Danone, and Group Castel/Alma (Neptune), demonstrating how these companies radically reshaped the market structure through aggressive strategies of merger and acquisitions of smaller companies and their brands. I also examine how their marketing strategies and actions transformed the cultural meaning of water, gradually shifting from a banal, life‐essential good into a commodity that connects to a range of different cultural images, lifestyles, and changing consumers’ tastes and behavior. I also situate bottled water markets into the wider debate of water politics and policy. WIREs Water 2018, 5:e1220. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1220 This article is categorized under: Human Water > Value of Water Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented

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Rich people’s water: Perrier, cosmopolitanism and drinkers of bottled water

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

(Re)theorizing the Politics of Bottled Water: Water Insecurity in the Context of Weak Regulatory Regimes

(Re)theorizing the Politics of Bottled Water: Water Insecurity in the Context of Weak Regulatory Regimes

How is a bottled water market created?

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