Assembling Participatory Water Governance in California's Central Coast: Discourse, Desalination, Drought

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Water Use and Governance

Abstract

Abstract: California’s Central Coast has just experienced its driest year in recorded history, exacerbating ongoing struggles over the region’s water future. Disagreements over whether and how to implement new technologies, such as desalination and water reuse, raise pivotal questions about long-term environmental and societal impacts. This paper is a preliminary effort to investigate competing perceptions of water, technology and environmental risk among stakeholders in Santa Cruz County’s participatory water governance process. It is both a theoretical and problem-oriented starting point for ongoing research I will be conducting over the next six months. Drawing on recent theoretical insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS), I use an actor-network approach to examine the relational and dialectical processes through which water, society and technology make and re-make each other over time. This process re-configures social and power relations, linking together social, ecological and technical challenges. Examining the shifting terrain of public debate in Santa Cruz County, provides a starting point for understanding how efforts to address long-term water challenges are predicated upon, and legitimized by particular configurations of water knowledge.

Keywords: water, environment and technology, governmentality, actor-network theory

Author

• Stephen Andrew Sepaniak, University of California-Santa Cruz