Abstract
First of all this article shows how our comprehension of nature is still influenced by Francis Bacon. Then the author discusses the concept of property as developed by John Locke, which still influences neoliberal theories, followed by a discussion of the concept of the commons and conceivable revisions to it. The article criticizes the privatization of common goods like water and makes claims for sustainable and fair handling of global water resources.
One of the important questions in pre-modern times was: How to compose “property” – if God gave the world, gave nature to all his children, to mankind in common?
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Notes
- 1.
See Claudia von Braunmühl and Uta von Winterfeld (2005), Wuppertal Paper No. 135e, March 2005, pp. 26–28 (transl: Stewart Lindemann).
- 2.
Ibid., p. 29f, translated by Richard Holmes.
- 3.
Significantly, the first chapter of the Gender and Water Development Report (2003) is dedicated to the topic of “Water for Nature”.
- 4.
See Goldman et al. (1973).
- 5.
John Widtsoe, “Success on Irrigation Projects”, published as a pamphlet in 1928, p. 138.
- 6.
Dams and Development (2000) Report of the World Commission on dams. Earthscan Publications, London, p. xviii.
- 7.
August 2005, International Institute for Sustainable Development (iisd). Pdf: http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2005/security_pastoral_water_impacts.pdf
- 8.
Cited in: Climate Change Deepening World Water Crises, by Thalif Deen, Interpress Service, March 19, 2008 (Global Policy Forum), http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/envronmt/climate/2008/0319deepwater.htm. Accessed 10 April 2008.
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von Winterfeld, U. (2010). Whose Nature – Whose Water? Some Remarks About the History of Ideas, Property and Democracy of Water. In: Gottwald, FT., Ingensiep, H., Meinhardt, M. (eds) Food Ethics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5765-8_11
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