Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia
In the U.S.-Mexico border region, an estimated 134,419 people live in United States colonias that lack access to water and/or sewer services. This article draws from ethnographic field research in one such Mexican-American community, where attempts by residents to move "decision-makers" to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Arizona Libraries
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Political Ecology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4868/ |
| _version_ | 1811254032115695616 |
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| author | Chilton Lee Tippin |
| author_facet | Chilton Lee Tippin |
| author_sort | Chilton Lee Tippin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the U.S.-Mexico border region, an estimated 134,419 people live in United States colonias that lack access to water and/or sewer services. This article draws from ethnographic field research in one such Mexican-American community, where attempts by residents to move "decision-makers" to connect their community to water have for decades met a shifting resistance. Attention to water-infrastructure arguments at local, state, and federal levels reveals that this resistance ushers from bureaucracy and a deeply entrenched neoliberal logic. Access to basic water and sewer services is subordinated to strict ranking criteria, infrastructural rules and regulations, and funding metrics such as cost-per-connection. In response, residents have raised a counter-discourse, emphasizing their human dignity, needs, and basic rights to water. Thus, this article exposes a central tension in the political ecology of water: the neoliberal thinking that undergirds infrastructural violence in the "hydrosocial waterscape", and the strategies by which residents attempt to mobilize, to fight, and to push back. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:00:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ffecb4200ae04830ac2f3b6b2f74ced4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1073-0451 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:00:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | University of Arizona Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Political Ecology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ffecb4200ae04830ac2f3b6b2f74ced42022-12-22T03:24:05ZengUniversity of Arizona LibrariesJournal of Political Ecology1073-04512022-04-0129110.2458/jpe.4868Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border coloniaChilton Lee Tippin0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0574-6912Cultural Anthropology, University of Colorado at BoulderIn the U.S.-Mexico border region, an estimated 134,419 people live in United States colonias that lack access to water and/or sewer services. This article draws from ethnographic field research in one such Mexican-American community, where attempts by residents to move "decision-makers" to connect their community to water have for decades met a shifting resistance. Attention to water-infrastructure arguments at local, state, and federal levels reveals that this resistance ushers from bureaucracy and a deeply entrenched neoliberal logic. Access to basic water and sewer services is subordinated to strict ranking criteria, infrastructural rules and regulations, and funding metrics such as cost-per-connection. In response, residents have raised a counter-discourse, emphasizing their human dignity, needs, and basic rights to water. Thus, this article exposes a central tension in the political ecology of water: the neoliberal thinking that undergirds infrastructural violence in the "hydrosocial waterscape", and the strategies by which residents attempt to mobilize, to fight, and to push back.http://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4868/Infrastructural violencehydrosocial waterscapepolitical ecology of watercoloniasU.S.-Mexico borderlands |
| spellingShingle | Chilton Lee Tippin Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia Journal of Political Ecology Infrastructural violence hydrosocial waterscape political ecology of water colonias U.S.-Mexico borderlands |
| title | Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia |
| title_full | Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia |
| title_fullStr | Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia |
| title_short | Ranked-out waterscapes: an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico border colonia |
| title_sort | ranked out waterscapes an ethnography of resistance and exclusion in a u s mexico border colonia |
| topic | Infrastructural violence hydrosocial waterscape political ecology of water colonias U.S.-Mexico borderlands |
| url | http://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4868/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chiltonleetippin rankedoutwaterscapesanethnographyofresistanceandexclusioninausmexicobordercolonia |