Chinese simplex rights (Social Science Academic Press), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UFMG), Arabic world rights (NCT)
Clean water is a basic requirement for earthly existence. This book makes visible the complex dimensions of the global water crisis, and against the background of theoretical conceptions of securing the common good and possibilities of political control traces the development of basic public infrastructure towards structures of global governance.
The question of water supplies is the most persuasive illustration of the importance of the public securing of the common good. In the early 1990s, however, the neo-liberal ideology of privatization and globalization saw the fall of this last bastion of state responsibility for public matters. Since that time, the privatization of drinking-water resources and the associated services has been propagated as the royal road on the one hand, and vehemently resisted on the other. This book makes visible the complex dimensions of the global water crisis, and traces the development of provision of public infrastructure towards structures of global governance – a development closely connected with theoretical conceptions of the importance of communal property, the best manner of securing the public good, and the possibilities of political control. The empirical investigation into the structures of the global network of water policies makes clear by examples that there are good reasons, in terms of theory of efficiency and democratization, to critically review the faith generally placed in global governance.
»In Dobner’s shocking account, we learn how the United Nations ceded its responsibilities to »transnational networks« such as the World Water Council, the Global Water Partnership, and even World Water Week. The author unmasks these as closely linked hermetic clubs, all controlled by the same individuals and corporations, who play down their lack of democratic legitimacy by citing their members’ expertise or prestige.« DIE ZEIT