The Dynamics of Crisis:

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The Dynamics of Crisis From Measurement to
Everyday Life in the Middle East Jan
Selby Department of International Relations,
University of Sussex
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Outline 1. Three discourses of water crisis 2. A
very political infrastructure 3. Everyday
practices of water management 4. Crisis? What
crisis?
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1. Three Discourses of Water Crisis
Discourse Problems Solutions Likely outcomes
Ecological Scarce or finite resources plus high populations Limit population growth Water wars


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1. Three Discourses of Water Crisis
Discourse Problems Solutions Likely outcomes
Ecological Scarce or finite resources plus high populations Limit population growth Water wars
Technical Mismanagement and inefficiencies Improve management and efficiency Progress

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1. Three Discourses of Water Crisis
Discourse Problems Solutions Likely outcomes
Ecological Scarce or finite resources plus high populations Limit population growth Water wars
Technical Mismanagement and inefficiencies Improve management and efficiency Progress
Political Uneven distribution of power and resources Reduce power and resource inequalities Winners and losers
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2. A Very Political Infrastructure
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Khaled Batrakh Reservoir, Hebron
5m
to Hebron and Kiryat Arba
2m
to Kiryat Arba
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3. Everyday Practices of Water Management a.
Municipal water authorities b. Household supply
management c. Household demand management
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3. Everyday Practices of Water Management a.
Municipal water authorities b. Household supply
management c. Household demand management Hetero
geneity Everyday expertise Social significance
of coping practices
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This is good for us, good to learn it teaches
people how to get things from the difficult life
... you will do anything to make you human if
you have a satellite, everything you need, you
will stop thinking about 1948. Young man,
Dheisheh refugee camp, while filling
water from a small spring   You feel like youre
not human. Woman, Dheisheh refugee camp, on the
experience of water shortage 
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4. Crisis? What Crisis? a. Experts, measurement
and crisis b. Experts and their irrational
others politics and culture c. But when one
studies practices and experiences one finds -
mundane normalcy of crisis - rational supply
and demand management