Workshop Proposal: Multi-Scalar and Cross-Disciplinary Approaches towards Equitable Water Governance- University of California, Santa Cruz, February 2013

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This award supports a workshop on Multi-Scalar and Cross-Disciplinary Approaches towards Equitable Water Governance to be held at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Water demand for human consumption, energy, services, and industrial uses is rapidly increasing and water scarcity is becoming a crisis worldwide. In addition, access and distribution of water resources continue to be inequitable, a problem that is becoming more pronounced through the effects of climate change. Current theoretical and analytical models do not adequately explain water inequities. Part of the problem is that most water scholarship focuses on single level analysis, mostly local, and neglects the dynamics among actors and institutions at multiple scales that may interact to produce water access patterns and outcomes. This workshop seeks to develop a new multi-scalar and cross-disciplinary analytical frameworks for equitable water governance. It will bring together a diverse and interdisciplinary team with expertise in key cases from around the world, including South and Central America, Africa, South and East Asia. The workshop's four objectives are: 1) to identify common patterns and processes in issues related to water equity that cut across geographical boundaries while recognizing the importance of specific contexts in shaping socio-ecological dynamics; 2) to explore the associated institutional underpinnings of water access patterns as a way to understand water governance and social organization; 3) to develop a cross-disciplinary framework for the multi-scalar study of equitable water governance and provision, with primary attention to temporal scale and socio-political-spatial scale; and 4) to generate analytics and research priorities that foster greater consistency and comparability in operationalizing key outcomes in research on water governance issues. The workshop supports both senior and junior scholars, including graduate students.