Trajectories of privatisation and the future of water services

Abstract

David McDonald on the trajectory of privatisation and the future of water services

CO-Water Voice. Turning Water Conflicst into co-productions by Prathiwi Putri

Welcome to CO-Water Voice!  We voice critical views and marginalized aspirations within the water development sector. CO-Water is a postdoctoral research program at the Department of International Agricultural Policy and Environmental Governance, University of Kassel. It is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. CO-Water looks at conflicts over water resources and water territories, and seeks to understand the conditions of possibility for turning conflicts into civil society co-production. We aim at conceptualizing a grassroots-led model of polycentric water governance in the postcolonial South.

Episode #4.2 on the trajectory of privatisation and the logic of (global) capital, as well as some possible paths that have emerged to improve public services

David McDonald joins us in this episode. He is a Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University in Canada.

He founded Municipal Services Project and serves as the co-director since 2000; Informed by social movements, labour unions and community groups, the Municipal Services Project examines trajectories of privatization in several countries and the possible paths towards the alternatives that have emerged from these particular locations. His extensive publications have enriched the debates over public versus private service delivery, especially in water, electricity and health care sectors, but he also locates these debates within the wider problems of urbanization, environmental justice and uneven development.

In this episode, we speak about the future of water services and the central institutional and agential transformations that might shape this future.