Abstract

CORTINAS, Joan. Social conditions of environmental policies: the water crisis management in southern California. Región y sociedad [online]. 2019, vol.31, e1014. ISSN 2448-4849.  https://doi.org/10.22198/rys2019/31/1014.

Southern California, United States, is experiencing periodic episodes of severe drought, which has led to the redesign and transition of management models of water resources. The purpose of this article is to understand the elements that come into play in order to account for the route taken by water transition. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of fields, the starting premise is that strategies of water resources management are associated with power relations between the actors involved in defining these models, as well as with their stakeholders’ professional profiles. Through a multiple correspondence analysis, it is concluded that while government decision makers, trained in environmental issues, promote conservation policies, it is not possible to implement these policies due to the great power that municipal and agriculture managers, engineers and administrators lacking an environmental profile have regarding water governance.

Keywords : theory of fields; water management; water crises; water policy; agri-environmental policy; drought; California.