Author ORCID Identifier
Emily McKee: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-4873
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Human Organization
Abstract
In this article, I examine the role of applied anthropology in coping with common water management dilemmas and in facilitating more equitable water management. Field research and interviews with Palestinian residents and water managers between 2012–2020 illuminate deep disagreements about two commonly used management tools: full-cost recovery pricing reforms and supply expansion through emerging water technologies. This case demonstrates that not only are there limits to the transportability of solutions across societies, but even within a society and among seemingly similar stakeholders, fundamental disagreement exists about a place’s water priorities and proper interventions. How do we explain the multiplicity of ways in which people seemingly of the same social group approach a single water issue? The article demonstrates an anthropological approach to understanding water use that draws political ecology’s focus on power together with attention to the intersectionality of peoples’ relationships to water. This approach can help water managers acknowledge the political impacts of purportedly apolitical management approaches, and it provides the basis for a more robust incorporation of diverse residents’ priorities into water management decision making.
First Page
209
Last Page
222
DOI
10.17730/1938-3525-82.3.209
Publication Date
8-24-2023
Recommended Citation
McKee, E. (2023). Coping with Complexity in Water Management: Lessons from Palestine. Human Organization, 82(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-82.3.209
Original Citation
McKee, E. (2023). Coping with Complexity in Water Management: Lessons from Palestine. Human Organization, 82(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-82.3.209
Department
Department of Anthropology
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge Press in Routledge Companion on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on Oct 26, 2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429027376