Description
Book SynopsisIn
A Vital Frontier Andrea Muehlebach examines the work of activists across Europe as they organize to preserve water as a commons and public good in the face of privatization. Traversing social, political, legal, and hydrological terrains, Muehlebach situates water as a political fault line at the frontiers of financialization, showing how the seemingly relentless expansion of capital into public utilities is being challenged by an equally relentless and often successful insurgence of political organizing. Drawing on ethnographic research, Muehlebach presents water protests as a vital politics that comprises popular referenda, barricades in the streets, huge demonstrations, the burning of utility bills, and legal disputes over transparency and contracts. As Muehlebach documents, Europe’s water activists articulate their own values of democracy and just price, raising far-reaching political questions about private versus common property and financing, liberal democracy, so
Trade Review"This book will be helpful for faculty and students interested in social movements, neoliberalism, and/or international water management practices. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." -- E. Bridger Wilson * Choice *
Table of ContentsPreface vii
Introduction. A Vital Frontier 1
1. You Cannot Sell to Us What We Already Possess! 35
2. No More Blood from These Stones! 67
3. We Berliners Want Our Water Back! 103
4. Just Price 135
Epilogue 167
Notes 179
References 213
Index 239
