Spatio-Temporality and Tribal Water Quality Governance in the United States

Abstract

Hydrosocial spatio-temporalities—aspects of water belonging to space, time, or space-time—are central to water governance, providing a framework upon which overall hydrosocial relations are constructed, and are fundamental to the establishment of values and central to socio-cultural-political relationships. Moreover, spatio-temporal conceptions may differ among diverse governing entities and across scales, creating “variability” through ontological pluralism, as well as power asymmetries embedded in cultural bias. This paper explores spatio-temporal conceptions related to water quality governance, an aspect of water governance often biased toward technical and scientific space-time conceptions. We offer examples of different aspects of spatio-temporality in water quality issues among Tribes in the United States, highlighting several themes, including spatiotemporal cycles, technological mediation, and interrelationship and fluidity. Finally, we suggest that because water is part of a dynamic network of space-times, water quality may be best governed through more holistic practices that recognize tribal sovereignty and hydrosocial variability.

Socio-hydrology with hydrosocial theory: two sides of the same coin?

“…The theoretical frameworks of hydrosocial studies have drawn extensively from the work of Swyngedouw, Boelens, and Kaika described above, incorporating post-structuralist theory (Hoogendam andBoelens 2019, Valladares and with analyses of coupled socio-ecological systems (Lerner et al 2018, Carey et al 2014. This context has provided intriguing opportunities for inquiries into "multiscalar networks" (Hommes et al 2016 and decolonization (McLean 2017, Stevenson 2018, Cavazos Cohn et al 2019, Duarte-Abida and Boelens 2019). An entire book informed by hydrosocial studies but not included in the Web of Science dragnet, Negotiating Water Governance: Why the Politics of Scale Matters, assesses rescaling political power in watersheds, often through the efforts of indigenous groups (Norman et al 2015).…”

Waves, Floods, Currents: The Politics and Poetics of Water in Social Movement Analysis

“…This challenge to instrumentalised, modern water by activist networks like "Making Relatives" also depends on its Indigenous references. The growing scholarship on Indigenous water epistemologies reveals the plurality of ways of relating to water: as a medicine (Cohn et al 2019); as heritage held in stewardship (Shepherd 2019); as a companion (Chaudhury 2019); as a (human) right and as a (non-human) possessor of rights. These add up to a polyvocal chorus against modern water's assumption of a universal hydrology.…”

Re-Theorizing Politics in Water Governance

“…Cavazos Cohn and colleagues [75] highlight the benefits of engaging with hydro-social spatio-temporalities, or aspects of water belonging to space and time, for theorizing Indigenous water governance. In particular, they explore the spatio-temporal conceptions central to water quality, which, they argue, are biased towards colonial technical and scientific approaches.…”

“…In particular, they explore the spatio-temporal conceptions central to water quality, which, they argue, are biased towards colonial technical and scientific approaches. Through case studies of water governance through Tribal Water Rights under the Clean Water Act's in the United States, they conclude that water quality and associated diversity of spatio-temporalities can be transformed through adopting more holistic practices that recognize tribal sovereignty and hydro-social variability [75]. Here, then, broader concerns of Indigenous rights and sovereignty impinge in crucial ways on water quality and other material outcomes, showing again the complexity and centrality of politics for water governance and, indeed, water itself [75].…”