The Struggle for Water
Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest
The Struggle for Water
Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest
In the 1970s, the three groups most intimately involved in the Orme Dam—younger Bureau of Reclamation employees committed to "rational choice" decision making, older Bureau engineers committed to the dam, and the Yavapai community—all found themselves and their values transformed by their struggles. Wendy Nelson Espeland lays bare the relations between interests and identities that emerged during the conflict, creating a contemporary tale of power and colonization, bureaucracies and democratic practice, that asks the crucial question of what it means to be "rational."
298 pages | 1 map, 2 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 1998
Chicago Series in Law and Society
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Political Science: Public Policy
Sociology: General Sociology
Table of Contents
1. Contested Rationalities
2. Nature by Design: The Bureau of Reclamation’s Western Conquest
3. The Old Guard: Stand by Your Dam
4. The New Guard: Agents of Rationality, Arbiters of Democracy
5. Views from the Reservation: The Politics and Perspective of Yavapai People
6. Rationality, Form, and Power
References
Abbreviations
Primary Documents and Printed Sources
Secondary Sources
Index
Awards
National Academy of Public Administration: Louis Brownlow Book Award
Won
ASA Culture Section: Mary Douglas Prize
Won
Society for Social Studies of Science: Rachel Carson Prize
Won
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