The Political Economy and Political Ecology of the Hydro‐Social Cycle

We are witnessing something unprecedented: Water no longer flows downhill. It flows towards money Geographers have been engaged in research into access to safe drinking water for years. In fact, Abel Wolman helped chlorinate the world's water. Over the past few years and in the wake of the resurgence of the environmental question on the political agenda, a growing body of work has emerged on the political-economy and political-ecology of water and water circulation (Gandy 1997, Loftus 2005, Kaika 2005, Castro 2006). This is re-defining the contours of water resources research and opening up an exciting and vitally important research agenda for the years to come. Political-ecological perspectives on water…