Water, Infrastructure and Power: Contention and Resistance in Post‐colonial Cities of the South

Geoff Goodwin

doi:10.1111/dech.12458

Abstract

Water, Infrastructure and Power: Contention and Resistance in Post‐colonial Cities of the South

Highlights

Ko s’ohun to’le se k’o ma lo’mi o Nothing without water Fela KutiOf water’s numerous functions, its social and political roles are perhaps the most intriguing and complex
Democracy’s Infrastructure includes documents from a landmark legal case lodged against the installation of water meters in South Africa, which allows von Schnitzler to shed further light on the struggle against the introduction of the new technology. These materials provide valuable insight into the economic conditions and strategies of the urban poor, something lacking in her ethnographic research
With the analytical lens fixed firmly on citizenship, less attention is paid to relations between social classes and how the social and economic structure influences the politics and distribution of water

Summary

Geoff Goodwin

NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2017. Antina von Schnitzler, Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno-politics and Protest after Apartheid. NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2016.

INTRODUCTION

INFRASTRUCTURE POLITICS

CONTESTED CITIZENSHIPS

CONSTRUCTING SCARCITY

APPROXIMATING WATER

CONCLUSION