The co-production of water justice in Latin American cities

Abstract

The concept of co-production implies that ‘citizens can play an active role in producing public goods and services of consequence to them’ by building upon existing local institutions and thereby reducing the scope for misappropriation of resources (Ostrom in World Development 24:1073-1087, 1996; Baland and Platteau in Halting degradation of natural resources: Is there arole for rural communities. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000). Based on arguments for a minimalist state, the political mood of the 1980s and 1990s provided commons scholars with an opportunity to emphasize institutional arrangements involving partnerships between state and civil society. Further, given the primacy of arguments that drove reductions in staff and agency budgets, a space was opened up for practical and scholarly exploration of incentives for enhanced accountability of public sector decision-making. In Latin America, of late, platforms for co-production have flourished in diverse socio-political conditions, with examples emerging from the public, private and community-led initiatives, mushrooming in particular under conditions of deepened infrastructural inequality. This chapter addresses an acknowledged weakness in this field by examining the role of co-production platforms, not only in addressing citizens’ practical water needs but also its scope for enhancing the transformative capacity of those involved. Drawing on peri-urban case studies in Bolivia (Cochabamba) and Venezuela (Caracas)-both of which moving into distinctive ‘post-neoliberal’ phases-the chapter explores the degree to which institutionalized service co-production mechanisms can build water justice. In doing so, the discussion considers the resilience of co-production platforms not only to withstand traditionally pervasive practices of political clientelism but also to lead to wider socio-political transformations and their scope to reconfigure unequal power-relations and overarching inequalities in the political economy of regulating water (in)justice.