Patrimonial economics and water management: A French case

Abstract

In environmental economics' literature, water resources are marked by the tension between commodification-extension of the market sphere to water-and a more collective management process based on the notion of common patrimony. Reconciling these two logics-market and patrimonial-is nonetheless difficult to perform from a theoretical perspective. Main lessons from these two trends highlight the need to go beyond the neoclassical economic approach, which alone proves to be insufficient for understanding the patrimonialization processes. These processes refer to social constructions aimed at identifying material or immaterial objects, inherited from the past, which have to be protected, managed, and transmitted to future generations. Patrimonial management and patrimonial economics propose a new analytical framework for environmental analysis. French water policy, which has been progressively rooted in the so-called patrimonial approach, provides a case study for this new framework.