The Ethics of Water - by Cameron Fioret

About the Book

"Uses ethics and democratic theory to critique the commodification of water and its negative effects on communities around the globe"--

Book Synopsis

In this global approach to climate change and freshwater access, Cameron Fioret explores the harmful effects of water commodification. Making use of deliberative democratic theory, Fioret suggests tools that can change the balance of democratic decision-making power by rethinking the governance of water more broadly.

Five main case studies including Detroit, Cochabamba, and Kerala span four continents to convey the global and local scope of normative water issues. These examples draw on contemporary water justice movements to explore how anti-water-commodification struggles can utilize water recommoning practices to make water governance processes more deeply democratic. Highlighting the ethical and sociopolitical ramifications of water injustice, this study moves beyond the surface issue of distributional concerns. To this end, Fioret draws on research in democratic political theory and environmental philosophy to consider what right people have to water, the putative harms of privatizing and commodifying water, common ownership, and legal protections, alongside local and transnational political activism. In navigating these pressing issues, The Ethics of Water provides a searing analysis of water commodification and political domination today.

Review Quotes

Our planet has a water crisis. To face it, we must establish fundamental principles upon which to create just and sustainable policies. The Ethics of Water clearly demonstrates that water service privatization leads to reduced service and poor source water protection, higher water rates and a lack of democratic, community control over local water sources. A very important book.
Maude Barlow, Activist, Author and Former UN Advisor on Water Policy, Canada

This is one of the first books that takes an explicitly philosophical/normative approach to the increasingly pressing topic of water commodification. Situated in discussions on rights, ownership, and democracy, the author provides a convincing argument for a deeper engagement for environmentalists with democratic processes and governance.
Neelke Doorn, Professor of Ethics of Water Engineering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

With a transdisciplinary focus, The Ethics of Water provides scholars and practitioners with clear and intellectually sound arguments for considering the distributive justice of water. Fioret details arguments for equitable and just principles to govern the distribution, consumption, and governance of water.
Mangala Subramaniam, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

About the Author

Cameron Fioret is Visiting Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), as well as a Visiting Scholar at the U-M Water Centre in the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, USA.