The Business of Water: Market Environmentalism in the Water Sector

Abstract

This article reviews the literature relevant to market environmentalism in the water sector, focusing on five themes: the privatization of resource ownership and management, the commercialization of resource management organizations, the environmental valuation and pricing of resources, the marketization of trading and exchange mechanisms, and the liberalization of governance. For each dimension, the discussion addresses a topic of contemporary academic interest (and policy and political relevance): privatization and protest, the contradictions of commercialization, the distinction between environmental valuation and commodification, the multiplication of modes of marketization, and the limits to the liberalization of environmental governance. Specific attention is given to unresolved questions and tensions in the debate over market environmentalism, particularly the tension between human rights and environmental rights and among state, market, and community roles in water management.