Mangala Subramaniam on water commodification and diverse trajectories of social movements
I have been thinking about emergence of diverse struggling bodies, modalities of struggles, and organization of social movements/ institutionalisation of social movements. It is really great to have Mangala Subramaniam with us. She is a Professor of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. She has been an important figure within diverse academic communities in the US and in India. Her most actual societal service in the academia is Senior Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research is in the broad areas of social inequality and social movements and she has published a number of outputs around water rights, including a book that discusses the history of World Water Forum and the emergence of People’s Water Forum. I think her trajectory of scholarship is valuable to enrich the current streams of anti-privatization literature. --- Minute 0 An excerpt from the conversation: the ambivalence of ‘state and community’ Minute 2 An introduction to the season and about the speaker in this episode 4.6 Minute 4 The conversation starts on the shift within water literature, and about urban-rural interlinkages Minute 9 the locus of community Minute 24 State institutions, protests and the role of social movements Minute 30 The roles beyond the national states, the World Water Forum and the People’s Water Forum Minute 36 ‘The people’ in the People’s Water Forum Minute 37.5 Scholars’ position in advocating just water governance Minute 40 Issues to further discuss towards the People’s Water Forum --- CO-Water Voice Theme Music: Solidas by Marjinal. The music was created during the solidarity action in Berlin, which was organized by the band on 18 February 2022. The solidarity evening was meant to support the struggles of communities in Indonesia against land grabbing and environmental degradation caused by the mining industry. Specific dedication in that evening was for the farming community in Wadas, whose village was destroyed by stone mining. Opening music: Biru Beriak by Lair from Jatiwangi, West Java. The music is dedicated to fisherfolk communities. Closing music and song: Selamat Pagi by Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka. The song was recorded by Prathiwi in Jakarta during their rehearsal on 18 March 2017. The children were still actively singing after their riverside workshop had been demolished in 2016, during a forced eviction. In 2016 alone, there were 193 cases of forced evictions with direct victims of 5.726 households and 5.379 informal business units in the kampungs of Jakarta, or the so-called slums, in the name of the Ciliwung river normalization program.
