| 翻訳と辞書 |
| Commodification of water ： ウィキペディア英語版 |
Commodification of water
The commodification of water refers to the process of transforming water from a public good into a tradable commodity also known as an economic good. This transformation introduces water to previously unencumbered market forces in the hope of being managed more efficiently as a resource. The Commodification of water has increased significantly during the 20th century in parallel with fears over water scarcity and environmental degradation. Central to its emergence was the view that public provision of water and government regulation of environmentally damaging behaviour was ineffective. Commodification has its theoretical roots in neoclassical discourse whereby a good or service is assigned an economic value which prevents misuse. The Commodification of water, although not a new phenomenon, is considered part of a more recent market-based approach to water governance which provokes both approval and disapproval from a range of stakeholders. Through the establishment of private property rights and market mechanisms it is argued that water will be allocated more efficiently. Bakker describes this market-based approach proposed by neoliberals as “market environmentalism”: a method of resource regulation that promises economic and environmental objectives can be met in tandem. To this extent the commodification of water can be viewed as an extension of capitalist and market tendencies into new spaces and social relations. Marx termed this phenomenon, “primitive accumulation”. For this reason there remains serious doubt as to whether commodification of water can help improve access to freshwater supplies and conserve water as a resource.
== Origins of Commodification of Water ==
Water is a basic need of life and at present an estimated one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and even more have inadequate sanitation. Global institutions, including the UN, warn of the impact of a growing global population and the effects of climate change on the ability of people to access freshwater.〔 This makes the debate over improving current and future water provision an urgent one and therefore thrusts discussion over approaches to water governance into the foreground to avert a looming crisis. This feeling prompted Fortune Magazine to write:
“Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations”
Issues surrounding the provision of water are nothing new; however, the approach to the problematic has changed dramatically during the last century. For the majority of the 20th century water was publicly provisioned in an era of the Keynesian Welfare State.〔 The state incurred high capital costs in building long-lasting infrastructure that could readily supply the population with universal access to water in the pursuit of economic growth and industrialisation. The emphasis was on social equity, with water resources state owned and centrally regulated through command and control regulation. The emphasis was on providing universal access and supply led solutions. This approach was heavily criticised during the late 20th century and under the prevailing ethos of neoliberal economic globalization, commodification of water was increasingly presented as the answer.〔 The ability of the state to continue provision of water efficiently was questioned in the latter half of the 20th century in parallel with the environmentalist movement which raised awareness of the resulting environmental degradation and ecological disturbances.〔 The fiscal crisis of the 1970s decreased public spending in most developed nations, leading to further deterioration of state-run infrastructure and further exacerbating problems of provision. Together with critics insistence on state inability to operate efficiently〔 these factors created an impetus for change in water governance. The precipitated change in attitude as to how water should be governed was market-based governance, proposed by neoliberals, and becoming the dominant approach to environmental problems. This shift in attitude led to the intensification of the commodification of water.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
■ウィキペディアで「Commodification of water」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|