1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779358503321

Autore

Linton Jamie

Titolo

What is water? : the history of a modern abstraction / / Jamie Linton ; foreword by Graeme Wynn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Vancouver : , : UBC Press, , [2010]

©2010

ISBN

1-280-77789-3

9786613688286

0-7748-1703-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (352 p.)

Collana

Nature | History | Society

Nature, history, society, , 1713-6680

Disciplina

553.7

Soggetti

Water

Hydrologic cycle

Water - History

Water - Environmental aspects

Water - Social aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Fixing the flow : the things we make of water -- Relational dialectics : putting things in fluid terms -- Intimations of modern water -- From premodern waters to modern water -- The hydrologic cycle(s) : scientific and sacred -- The Hortonian hydrologic cycle -- Reading the resource : modern water, the hydrologic cycle, and the state -- Culmination : global water -- The constitution of modern water -- Modern water in crisis -- Sustaining modern water : the new "global water regime" -- Hydrolectics.

Sommario/riassunto

"We all know what water is, and we often take it for granted. But the spectre of a worldwide water crisis suggests there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way we think about water. Jamie Linton dives into the history of water as an abstract concept, stripped of its environmental, social, and cultural contexts. Reduced to a scientific abstraction--to mere H[subscript 2]O--this concept has given modern



society licence to dam, divert, and manipulate water with apparent impunity. Part of the solution to the water crisis involves reinvesting water with social content, thus altering the way we see water. What Is Water? offers a fresh approach to a fundamental problem."--BOOK JACKET.