The “Commons” Versus the “Commodity”: Alter‐globalization, Anti‐privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South

TLDR

The expansion of private sector control over water supplies has spurred anti‑privatization campaigns framing water as a human right, while alter‑globalization activists promote commons‑based governance through North‑South alliances of labor, environmental, women’s, and indigenous groups. This paper investigates the distinct yet overlapping responses to water privatization. The authors develop a generic model of market‑environmentalist reforms and apply it to anti‑privatization activism to expose the limits of the human‑right framing as both a conceptual counterpoint and activist strategy. They conclude that commons‑oriented alter‑globalization strategies are more conceptually coherent and effective, and call for sharper conceptual precision in analyses of neoliberalization.

Abstract

Abstract: In response to the growth of private sector involvement in water supply management globally, anti‐privatization campaigns for a human right to water have emerged in recent years. Simultaneously, alter‐globalization activists have promoted alternative water governance models through North‐South red‐green alliances between organized labour, environmental groups, women's groups, and indigenous groups. In this paper, I explore these distinct (albeit overlapping) responses to water privatization. I first present a generic conceptual model of market environmentalist reforms, and explore the contribution of this framework to debates over ‘neoliberalizing nature’. This conceptual framework is applied to the case of anti‐privatization activism to elucidate the limitations of the human right to water as a conceptual counterpoint to privatization, and as an activist strategy. In contrast, I argue that alter‐globalization strategies—centred on concepts of the commons—are more conceptually coherent, and also more successful as activist strategies. The paper concludes with a reiteration of the need for greater conceptual precision in our analyses of neoliberalization, for both academics and activists.