The Global Politics of Bottled Water: Towards an Integrative Research Agenda

My talk at ISA 2016 reprised to the School of International Service (SIS) PhD Colloquium at American University, Washington DC, March 30th, 2016. I wanted to get feedback on which potential topics could be addressed through lenses of international relations, comparative politics and public policy research.

Transcript

1. The Global Politics of Bottled
   Water: Towards an Integrative
   Research Agenda
   DR. RAUL PACHECO-VEGA
   CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA ECONÓMICAS (CIDE)
   SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL SERVICE, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
   WASHINGTON, USA. MARCH 30TH, 2016
   

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4. Bottled water: A global environmental
   governance paradox
    Water should be a global human right (UN Resolution
   64/292, July 28, 2010)
    Yet, bottled water has grown to become one of the
   most profitable industries globally.
    Commodifying the human right to water (Pacheco-
   Vega 2015)
   

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5. Research Question
    How can we analyze bottled water within the
   context of a global environmental dynamics? and
    What analytical purchase do these approaches give
   us?
    global environmental politics
    comparative politics
    international relations
   

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6. Context: Other scholarly treatments of
   bottled water
    Hawkins, Potter and Race (2015) “Plastic Water: The Social and Material Life of
   Bottled Water” MIT Press.
    Material culture treatment of “how bottled water insinuated themselves into our lives”
    Gleick (2011) “Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled
   Water” Island Press.
    From a natural science perspective, a social science perspective on bottled water
    Clarke (2005) “Inside The Bottle: An Expose of the Bottled Water Industry”
    An activist’s view of the BW industry (briefly takes on the regulatory component too)
   

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7. Context: Other book-length treatments of
   bottled water
    Mascha (2006) Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most
   Distinctive Bottled Waters. Quirk Books
    !?!?!?!? There is a sommelier for bottled water
    Royte (2009) “Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over
   America's Drinking Water” Bloomsbury
    A very strong focus on the plastic bottle, but an indictment too of bottled water
    Salzman (2012) “Drinking Water: A History” The Overlook Press
    From the tap water perspective, a legal and historical view of why bottled water has
   taken over our lives
   

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8. From a global perspective…
    Conca (2005) Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and
   Global Institution Building, The MIT Press.
    Water seen at a global scale from an IR perspective.
    Bottled water and mercantilization touched upon, inspiring further work…
   

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9. Context: new book/research project
    Essays on the global politics of bottled water
    Components:
    Study on ENGO mobilizations against Nestlé in Canada and the United States (WPSA,
   MPSA, CPSA)
    Research on determinants of bottled water consumption in Mexico (w/Alfredo Ortega,
   RISSA, PMRC), stories about BW (w/Laura Estrada), marketing (w/Karina Leyva), and
   mobilizations (w/Daniela Ramirez) – book in Spanish, chapter in English
    Analysis of anti-bottled water vs. pro-tap water campaigns in US and Canadian universities
   (CPSA)
    Work on the ethics of “ethical bottled water” (w/ Christiana Peppard, Fordham University)
    Investigation of new regulatory frameworks (or lack thereof) for bottled water in cities
   (Water Centric Cities, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee)
   

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10. Two interrelated bodies of literature
    Comparative Politics
     National patterns of bottled water
    sociopolitical dynamics
     Consumption
     Trading (domestic markets)
     Bottled water vs. soft drinks
     Comparisons of domestic
    regulations towards bottled water
     Extraction
     Distribution
     Marketing
    International relations
     Geopolitics
     Bottled water as a source of
    international/transnational conflict
     International political economy
     Global markets where packaged
    water trading occurs
     Norm diffusion (or NON-diffusion)
     Human right to water as a norm – is
    it conflicting with BW global
    acceptance?
    

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11. Transnationalism and bottled water
     Role of states in governing bottled water (IR)
     Role of non-state actors in the global governance of bottled water
     Two interrelated projects:
     Comparing environmental activism (comparative politics)
     against bottled water
     pro-tap water
     Transnational environmental coalition building or transnational activism (IR)
     Towards promoting HRW (HRW as an international norm that can be then pushed
    forward by environmental NGOs)
    

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12. HRW as a frame of meaning against
    privatization of water supply vs acceptance
    of bottled water (norm diffusion)
    

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13. HRW and BW from a domestic-
    international perspective
     Whereas previous conceptualizations of HRW focused on it as
    STRATEGY, I side with Mirosa and Harris (2012) in that we
    need to reconsider HRW as a framework for GOAL
    ATTAINMENT.
     Implementing the HRW will necessitate a focus on two
    simultaneous strategies:
    a) Remunicipalization of private water service delivery
    b) Regulation and control of the global bottled water industry across
    scales
    

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14. Feedback sought:
     What kind of IR/comparative politics/public policy pressing questions arise when
    you see the topic of bottled water?
     Would it make sense to make this a book project or just a series of articles?
     Potential case studies for the comparative project.
     Further avenues for research
    

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15. Thank you!
    Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD
    Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
    (CIDE)
    http://www.raulpacheco.org
    Twitter: @raulpacheco
    Facebook: DrPachecoVega
    E-mail: raul.pacheco-vega@cide.edu
    

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