Capitalising on water soft paths: new futures for urban communities

Abstract

ABSTRACT As social artefacts born out of social and economic aspirations and ideologies, the design and application of critical infrastructures can meaningfully engage or alienate the everyday user; be complicit to the extractive economy or facilitate its sustainable extraction and regeneration; and generate outcomes that are productive for local human capital and community development or otherwise. This study applies a “soft path” interpretation of the sociality of water infrastructures in local community contexts. It examines how “water soft paths” – water infrastructures and shared systems intentionally designed to promote sustainable water consumption and production – can be delivered with and through local community participation, and in turn, facilitate community development as well as other socially productive and just outcomes. From a cross-case analysis of five global cases of water soft path implementations, numerous far-reaching benefits of the water soft path approach were discovered. Accruing to it were the attainment of pro-ecological outcomes, human capital creation, community identity building, improved social equity and justice; and multi-agency partnerships. The study thus prompts critical reconsideration of dominant planning philosophies and practice, and proposes a practical approach for instituting creative, user-centric forms of community-level urban planning.