The Hydrosocial Cycle: Understanding Water as a Socionatural Production

Abstract

The lack of attention to the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of water conflicts and water policies has led to the production of the hydrosocial cycle framework since the beginning of the new century. This concept understands water as a socionatural hybrid formed as a result of the interrelationships between water flows and social, economic, political and cultural processes. Linton and Budds (2014) define the hydrosocial cycle as a socionatural process by which water and society influence and transform each other along different spatial and temporal scales. As a result, water cannot be managed solely from technical and quantitative perspectives, since the environmental problems surrounding this resource are fundamentally social and political issues. Understanding water beyond its biophysical characteristics, such as its chemical composition (H₂O), quality and quantity, implies becoming aware of how its circulation is influenced by society through hydraulic infrastructures, legislation, cultural practices and symbolic meanings. The aim of this concept is to try to overcome dualistic visions that separate water and society through a relational-dialectic approach that allows identifying how water, at the same time as it is produced by society, reconfigures social relations and highlights power relationships involved in this process . In this way, it can be identified how the distribution and control of water resources in local contexts are influenced by processes of capital accumulation and unequal power relations produced at different scales. Therefore, the hydrosocial cycle analysis provides a better understanding of how water flows shape and are shaped by institutions, practices and human discourses that determine, in turn, ways of control, management and decision making.