Journal Articles

Water Alternatives Special Issue: Remunicipalization: The Future of Water Services?

Author:

edited by David A. McDonald and Erik Swyngedouw

Year:

2019

Publisher:

Water Alternatives, Vol 12, Issue 2

Number of pages:

Available languages:

Available Formats:

PDF (EN)

Access ALL articles in the Special Issue

Media:

Listen to the Podcast with David McDonald (Queen's University, Kingston, Canada) and activist Miriam Planas (Aiguas es Vida, Barcelona)

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Abstract

After 30 years of privatization, hundreds of cities around the world have taken water services back into public control, and the pace appears to be growing. There are forces that may slow or reverse this trend, however, with private water companies increasingly concerned about the impact that remunicipalisation will have on future profits, international financial institutions that remain broadly supportive of private sector participation in water services, fiscal austerity that forces local governments to abandon plans for remunicipalisation, and legal barriers. There are also diverse – even contradictory – motivations for remunicipalisation, putting into question its future as a coherent policy trend. This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of these broad international trends – identifying key stakeholders and investigating the nature of their support for, or opposition to, remunicipalisation – thereby shedding light on the ways in which these actors and ideas impact local and global policymaking. It looks at successes and failures in the remunicipalisation arena, with new case studies and extensive interviews with major powerbrokers in the water sector. Our hypothesis is that remunicipalisation will continue to grow in the medium term due to widespread dissatisfaction with privatization on the part of elected officials, civil servants and citizens, but that differences within the remunicipalisation movement, combined with ongoing fiscal restraints and growing resistance from powerful multilateral actors, may make it difficult to sustain this growth without significant changes to strategy, engagement and resources, yielding useful lessons for remunicipalisation in other sectors as well.

Listen to the Podcast with David McDonald (Queen's University, Kingston, Canada) and activist Miriam Planas (Aiguas es Vida, Barcelona) here.

Chapters

English

English

The new water wars: Struggles for remunicipalisation
David A. McDonald and Erik Swyngedouw
Water Alternatives 12(2): 322-333

Will the Empire strike back? Powerbrokers and remunicipalisation in the water sector
David A. McDonald
Water Alternatives 12(2): 348-359

Legal barriers to remunicipalisation? Trade agreements and investor–state investment protection in water services
Britta Kynast
Water Alternatives 12(2): 334-347

Water justice will not be televised: Moral advocacy and the struggle for transformative remunicipalisation in Jakarta
Emanuele Lobina, Vera Weghmann and Marwa Marwa
Water Alternatives 12(2): 414-437

The deadlock of metropolitan remunicipalisation of water services management in Barcelona
Hug March, Mar Grau-Satorras, David Saurí and Erik Swyngedouw
Water Alternatives 12(2): 360-379

Which way will the winds blow? Post-privatisation water struggles in Sofia, Bulgaria
Georgi Medarov and David A. McDonald
Water Alternatives 12(2): 438-458

The struggle for public water in Marseille, France
Susan Spronk and Emilie Sing
Water Alternatives 12(2): 380-393

Power asymmetries and limits to eminent domain: The case of Missoula water’s municipalisation
Cory Mann and Mildred Warner
Water Alternatives 12(2): 394-413