Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Mutual Impacts of Cross-Cultural Contacts

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Graduate student Andrea Ballestero, supervised by Dr. George E. Marcus, will undertake research on change in how water is perceived and managed as a commodity in Latin America. The distinction between water as a basic right and water as a commodity has been symbolic of the separation and political configuration of the public domain and the private domain, and of different ethical investments in nature and rights. This distinction is being blurred in Latin American water politics through the standardization of expert knowledge. Ballestero will investigate changing notions of best practices and expert knowledge in the management of water in Latin America where, in waves of economic reform, local governments have increasingly reduced the size of public water utilities and adopted scientific tools for water planning. The research is to be conducted in Ceará, Brazil, and San Jose, Costa Rica.The researcher will employ a range of ethnographic data collection strategies including participant observation, in-depth interviewing, archival research, and surveys. Her focus will be on comparing how water experts produce a single set of techno-legal policy guidelines while making use of conflicting information from local and international frames of reference. The main objectives of this project are to investigate a) how water experts produce, mobilize, and negotiate water policy expertise, b) whether or not these negotiations change how water rights are understood, and c) how specific local environmental conditions of scarcity and quality influence expert policy tool choices. The research is important because it will contribute to social science theory about the relationships between international science and local environmental management, bringing social science to bear on issues of great contemporary importance. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.