The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation
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2007
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu11676863512021-08-03T05:51:49Z The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation Birkenholtz, Trevor L. Political Ecology Groundwater Scarcity Irrigation Reverse Adaptation India This dissertation examines the conditions under which tubewell groundwater lifting technology in Rajasthan, India is adopted and adapted by producers, technicians, and bureaucrats, and how these adoptions later feed back into the landscape and political ecological processes. By examining the links between environmental knowledge, technology adoption, capital accumulation and ecological change, I demonstrate the ways that these processes operate recursively to produce new social institutions, alter social power relationships (including environmental knowledge) and ecologies, while informing the future creation of equitable groundwater governance strategies. My research contributes a new approach to the fields of political ecology, critical development studies, and science and technology studies (STS) through fresh exploration of the effects that agrarian technologies have on political ecological processes. First, findings include that tubewells, as one example of a scarcity-reducing technology, actually create scarcity for particular communities, alter existing relationships of power, and condition the production of new institutions and new kinds of modern ecological people (or subjects). For instance, tubewell adoption has led to the proliferation of new informal (e.g. sharing of tubewells and/or electricity for pumping between farms) and formal (e.g. Central and State Groundwater Boards and irrigation departments) institutions. Moreover, their use alters ecological conditions, including soil and groundwater quality, which undermines both their continued use and the continued production of high-yielding crops. Ironically, farmers are returning to the production of traditional crops as soils become sodic due to increasingly poor quality groundwater. Tubewell use has, therefore, undermined the original conditions under which it proliferated in a recursive process of ecological change, leading to further political ecological differentiation. Consequently, tubewells have capacity to motivate human and non-human processes, and are both cause and consequence of ecological change and social institution formation. Second, findings from the work also suggest that groundwater knowledge systems are a hybrid drawing on diverse sources including tubewell drilling firms, groundwater departments, and Hindu spiritual leaders. Third, tensions exist between these various knowledges and institutions, in particular those between farmers and the state, which impede the future creation and implementation of groundwater governance strategies. I examine this example of a scarcity-reducing technology to illustrate the complex interaction of traditional and technical knowledge and technologies with environmental change, local and state forms of power, and development policies. This project demonstrates the contradictory effects of ecological modernization around the world. 2007-01-05 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1167686351 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1167686351 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Political Ecology Groundwater Scarcity Irrigation Reverse Adaptation India |
| spellingShingle |
Political Ecology Groundwater Scarcity Irrigation Reverse Adaptation India Birkenholtz, Trevor L. The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| author |
Birkenholtz, Trevor L. |
| author_facet |
Birkenholtz, Trevor L. |
| author_sort |
Birkenholtz, Trevor L. |
| title |
The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| title_short |
The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| title_full |
The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| title_fullStr |
The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation |
| title_sort |
politics of groundwater scarcity: technology, institutions, and governance in rajasthani irrigation |
| publisher |
The Ohio State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2007 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1167686351 |
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AT birkenholtztrevorl thepoliticsofgroundwaterscarcitytechnologyinstitutionsandgovernanceinrajasthaniirrigation AT birkenholtztrevorl politicsofgroundwaterscarcitytechnologyinstitutionsandgovernanceinrajasthaniirrigation |
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