Territorial pluralism: water users’ multi-scalar struggles against state ordering in Ecuador’s highlands

Abstract

Ecuadorian state policies and institutional reforms have territorialized water since the 1960s. Peasant and indigenous communities have challenged this ordering locally since the 1990s by creating multi-scalar federations and networks. These enable marginalized water users to defend their water, autonomy and voice at broader scales. Analysis of these processes shows that water governance takes shape in contexts of territorial pluralism centred on the interplay of divergent interests in defining, constructing and representing hydrosocial territory. Here, state and nonstate hydro-social territories refer to interlinked scales that contest and recreate each other and through which actors advance their water control interests. ARTICLE HISTORY

Polycentric struggles: The experience of the global climate justice movement

“…Stern, Dietz, Dolsak, Ostrom, and Stonich (, p. 476) observed that movements “have asserted the right to participate in institutional design,” and could be crucial for both institutional functioning and innovation, because they are “linked across scale and place in ways which may help to spread design innovations.” (p. 476). There is ample evidence on how social movements can lead to policy changes that promote more ecological and just governance (e.g., Bullard & Johnson, ; Weldon, ; Htun & Weldon, ), to improved cross‐scale implementation of existing policies (e.g., Barnes, Lynham, Kalberg, & Leung, ; Hoogesteger, Boelens, & Baud, ), and to the strengthening of local commons governance (Villamayor‐Tomas & García‐López, ).…”

“…(p. 476). There is ample evidence on how social movements can lead to policy changes that promote more ecological and just governance (e.g., Bullard & Johnson, 2000;Weldon, 2011;Htun & Weldon, 2012), to improved cross-scale implementation of existing policies (e.g., Barnes, Lynham, Kalberg, & Leung, 2016;Hoogesteger, Boelens, & Baud, 2016), and to the strengthening of local commons governance (Villamayor-Tomas & García-López, 2017).…”

“…In this way they showed the polycentric (multiscalar, multiactor, multi-issue) nature of energy projects. In Ecuador, Boelens et al (2015) and Hoogesteger, Boelens, and Baud (2016) show how peasant and indigenous organizationsthrough their multiscalar connections to development, environmental, and human rights organizations-have been able to successfully claim rights over water in the face of threats from state policies.…”

Gestión Del Agua Subterránea De Uso Agrícola: Los Retos De La Sustentabilidad Socio-Ambiental Y La Equidad

“…Para analizar las socioecologías de las aguas subterráneas y la concentración de acceso a las aguas subterráneas es necesario un marco conceptual en capas. Este marco puede visualizarse como una cebolla, con un núcleo que consta de los conceptos para estudiar las redes hidrosociales (Wester, 2008) que constituyen la socioecología de las aguas subterráneas, es decir, las configuraciones de tecnologías, seres humanos, aguas subterráneas y otros recursos productivos y materiales dentro de un territorio determinado Hommes et al, 2018;Hoogesteger et al, 2016). La capa que rodea este núcleo interno consta de la economía política de las cadenas de productos básicos (agrícolas e industriales), las políticas agrarias y de mercado, así como de las políticas de gestión de acuíferos.…”

De-colonizing water. Dispossession, water insecurity, and Indigenous claims for resources, authority, and territory

“…As we show in this paper, for most Indigenous families and communities, water security is determined not just by absolute availabilities of water in their territories; most of all it is a function of historical and contemporary distribution patterns of resources and services (quantities and qualities), in a context of threats and encroachment practices (Babidge 2015;Hoogesteger and Verzijl 2015;Hoogesteger et al 2016;Saldías et al 2012;Zoomers 2010). This means that water security for one group of actors commonly entails water insecurity for others.…”