Plumbing poverty: insecure access, shutoffs, and the social infrastructures of water in Europe and the USA

家庭用水不安全——缺乏安全、可靠、充足和负担得起的水来维持繁荣生活——是对人类健康和可持续发展的全球性威胁。本项目研究了全球北方地区不安全的供水和停水问题——这是一个严重的问题，在一些地方日益严重，但人们对这个问题知之甚少，在高收入国家也同样存在。该项目提出了一个问题：为什么这样的基础设施状况会在富裕的城市和国家出现并持续存在？在确定欧洲和美国供水贫困的主要模式和驱动因素的过程中，本项目旨在解释家庭用水不安全与公共服务提供的政治经济变化之间的关系。首先，该项目将利用人口普查微观数据的统计和时间序列分析，确定自1970年至今六个国家（希腊、爱尔兰、葡萄牙、罗马尼亚、西班牙和美国）不安全用水的空间格局和趋势。结合政策分析，研究结果将为欧洲和美国的共同趋势和差异提供见解。其次，该项目将通过对四个都市区（两个在欧洲，两个在美国）的比较案例研究分析，解释导致不同类型城市供水不安全和停水的社会和制度因素。随着北方城市向市场化和金融化的供水和卫生服务模式迈进，本研究将催生有关发达资本主义社会社会基础设施状况的新理论，并为我们可能最意想不到的地方持续存在的家庭用水不安全问题提供数据驱动的解释。

Household water insecurity--the lack of safe, reliable, sufficient, and affordable water for a thriving life--is a global threat to human health and sustainable development. This project examines insecure water access and shutoffs in the global North--a significant, in some places growing, and yet poorly understood problem that is reproduced in high-income countries. The project asks: Why do such infrastructural conditions arise and persist in wealthy cities and countries? In identifying key patterns and drivers of plumbing poverty in Europe and the United States, this project aims to explain household water insecurity in relation to the changing political economy of public service provision. First, the project will use statistical and time-series analysis of census microdata to identify spatial patterns and trends in insecure water access in six countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the USA) from 1970-present. Coupled with policy analysis, the results will provide insights into common trends and divergences across Europe and the USA. Second, the project will explain the social and institutional factors that lead to insecure water access and shutoffs in different kinds of cities, drawing on comparative case study analysis of four metro regions (two in Europe, two in the USA). As cities in the North move toward market-based and financialized models of water and sanitation services, this research will catalyze new theory about the state of social infrastructures in advanced capitalist societies and provide data-driven explanation for the persistence of household water insecurity in the places we may least expect.