The Meaning of Water
By Veronica Strang
Published by Berg
Water is the world’s most valuable resource – and its most contested.
In The Meaning of Water, Professor Strang focuses on the River Stour in Dorset to explore the many different meanings
that water holds for people and how this affects the ways they think about and use water resources.
She looks at how the meanings of water affect people’s relationships with those who own and manage resources and their
responses to government policies, and discovers why some describe water privatisation as “the worst thing that ever
happened to us”.
The research shows how the cultural meanings of water have major implications for our prospects of achieving sustainable
levels of usage.
Strang also explores other factors putting pressure on water supplies; changing climate, rising populations, and
agricultural developments leading to ever increasing needs for water.
With NZ’s increasing droughts and floods, its intensifying agriculture and its experiments with water privatisation,
Professor Strang’s book offers some timely insights into the issues.
Veronica Strang is the Professor of Anthropology in AUT’s School of Social Science. She holds a BA (Hons) Sheffield,
MPhil (Oxford), DPhil (Oxford).
Launch:
When: Wednesday, March 17th,
Where: Old Government House, University of Auckland Campus
Cnr Princes St and Waterloo Quadrant
Auckland City
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Sponsored by Watercare.