Water governance and the interplay of scales

Governance is a polysemous word, used in opposition to government to indicate a less centralized form of power. The term's success probably stems from its ambiguity. Indeed, it is a concept sometimes used to challenge central executive power (monarchy, corporate management, etc.) in a context where it is perceived as hegemonic, and sometimes used to call for more government, in a market context perceived as chaotic, but in which the dominant ideology is opposed to centralized intervention. It is therefore both a concept for demanding more and less government.

This UE approaches governance from a critical and reflexive angle, with a historical depth that integrates the evolutionary trajectories of public action between globalization and Europeanization on the one hand, and decentralization and territorialization on the other, in contexts of growing uncertainty, global change and transitions. In particular, it explores the following questions:

• Governance? Dominant concept, critical approach, institutional, socio-political context, emergence, evolution in a context of global change?
• Construction of water policies and governance; Role of concepts and discourses; How can modes of governance be influenced or changed? How can collective values promoted by IWRM be better taken into account? Importance of the long term, historical depth and foresight?
• What room for maneuver do stakeholders have at local, national and international levels? What are the strategies for managing a water territory? Illustrating the diversity of modes of governance
• Water governance: between integration and fragmentation?
• Water as an 'inter-connecting fluid' for stakeholders and ecosystems: what kind of governance is needed for these interactions and their social translation?

• Critically explore the dominant concept of governance, understanding the institutional and socio-political context of its emergence and evolution in a context of global change and transitions.
• Analyze and understand how water policies are developed and their role in water governance, examining in particular the role of concepts and discourses, and how modes of governance can be inflected or changed to better take into account the collective values promoted by IWRM.
• Understand the room for maneuver of stakeholders at national and international level and the management strategies of a water territory through examples that illustrate the diversity of modes of governance and the relationships between the distribution of power and the costs/benefits associated with a given hydrological regime.

Minimum knowledge of water stakeholders and policies.

Collective project and individual questions.

Water governance: the trajectory of a concept and prospects in a world in transition (S. Richard)

This course explores in greater depth the concept of governance covered in the "Stakes, players, regulation" course, tracing and analyzing the history of its emergence and its many meanings in a number of disciplinary fields. The aim is to develop students' critical analysis and reflexivity with regard to this dominant concept and its relevance to adaptive public action.

Governance and the State (F. Molle)

This course offers a theoretical overview of public policy formation and the processes involved in defining public policy. It aims to develop a critical analysis of discursive power around water concepts. It provides a concrete illustration of the importance of discursive power through discourse analysis of a World Bank document.

Institutional change and "governance shift" (F. Molle)

This course distinguishes between state and non-state governance, and examines reform in the water sector, and the different levers through which different actors can bring about change in governance and decision-making; the role ofadvocacy, knowledge production, deliberative approaches and codes of conduct are examined alongside classic state actions and instruments.

Diversity of water governance systems and adaptations to global change. Practical application and illustration based on French and international case studies (S. Richard, S. Ghiotti)

The diversity of modes of governance at different scales and in different contexts, and the importance of taking the long term into account for public action in the water sector, are illustrated through case studies based on different examples, in particular French - to illustrate a system where the State is very present (strength of the SAGE/SDAGE), but also decentralized and with a clear desire for consultation between local players, while still being subject to European directives (WFD and other water directives); Chile (to illustrate how water markets work); Bolivia (where water is managed by the community, with very little State intervention); and/or others.

The WFD and its application (S. Ghiotti, S. Richard)

France's adoption of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC) and its target of achieving "good ecological status" by 2015 impose obligations on states to achieve results. How "good ecological status" is perceived, defined and accepted by the various stakeholders is a social and political construct that varies in time and space. All these dynamics of territorial recomposition at work carry with them significant social, environmental and financial stakes. The implementation of the WFD therefore calls into question the organizational and territorial processes that guide water and land management in France. The two main themes of the conference will be an analysis of the recomposition of water governance as part of the drive to achieve good status, and an analysis of changes in society's relationship with its aquatic environments (representations, practices, management, etc.).

Introduction to a political ecology of watershed development and management (F. Molle)

The course introduces an approach to water development and management that highlights the relationships between formal and informal decision-making and power structures, and planning and management methods, as well as their implications in terms of the spatial and social distribution of costs and benefits. He illustrates this approach with examples from Thailand, Tanzania, USA, Morocco, India and the Middle East.