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Erschienen in:
Water Resources of Italy Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

2021 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

4. Testing the Waters: A Sociological Analysis of Domestic Water Use and Consumption

verfasst von : Filippo Oncini, Francesca Forno

Erschienen in: Water Law, Policy and Economics in Italy

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

By looking at water as a sociological object of analysis, the chapter outlines how the insights obtained from sociology can help to a great extent when framing both water as a commodity and water use as a practice. Building on the existing literature, the chapter discusses the specificity of Italy as a meaningful case study and focuses on water saving behaviour and bottled water consumption as two facets of water sustainability. After a preliminary account on the sociology of water and on the characteristics of the Italian context, we make use of the 2014 Multipurpose Survey of Daily Life and the 2014 Survey on Household Consumption by ISTAT to analyse whether water saving behaviour and bottled water consumption are stratified by economic and cultural resources. We provide evidence that while water saving behaviour is almost evenly distributed across the population, the probability of purchasing bottled water is highly dependent on the economic resources of the household. In the conclusion, we discuss our findings and their major limitations, and provide some additional research questions that sociologists could help address.

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Vorheriges Kapitel The Uses and Value of Water in Italy: Evidence from Selected Case Studies in Italy, with a Particular Focus on Irrigation, Industry and Hydropower
Nächstes Kapitel Water Resources Management in Italy: Institutions, Laws and Approaches
Fußnoten
1
On this see also, in addition to Sect. 4.3.1 of this chapter, Chap. 11 by Turrini and Pertile in this volume.
 
2
The original proposal addressed three questions: a first one concerned the repeal of the law that forced local Governments to turn to the market for the provision of all local public services; a second regarded the abolition of the specific rule on the choice of water services management; one last question was related to the method of calculation of the water service fees. In January 2011, the Constitutional Court, the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law that also decides on the eligibility of referendum questions, rejected the second question and passed the other two. As underlined by Marotta (2014): “In particular, the Constitutional Court approved the referendum for the repeal of the legislation on water services with specific reference to the criterion of ‘adequate return on the invested capital’ (Judgement no. 26/2011). The Court made it clear that this referendum aimed at separating water management from the global logic of market profit” (p. 42).
 
3
Although it is clearly difficult to speak of a direct effect on people’s water consumption of the campaigns launched by the Italian “water movement” to reduce the consumption of bottled water and, conversely, increase that of tap water, it is nevertheless interesting to note that the percentage of those who declare to usually drink water from the tap seems to have increased during the years immediately after the referendum (2011–2012), only to decrease again in the following years.
 
4
These data are from Statista (“Average selling price of mineral water in large retail distribution in Italy in 2018, by type”, https://​tinyurl.​com/​y42e2fnk) and Numbeo (“Price Rankings by Country of Water (1.5 liter bottle)”, https://​tinyurl.​com/​yxvgfhan).
 
5
Results do not change substantially if we apply an ordered logistic regression on the original response categories or if we recode the variables distinguishing between “regularly” and all the others.
 
6
Bottled water consumption could be also driven by the perceived quality of tap water in the area of residence. Despite water being drinkable almost everywhere in Italy, families may opt for bottled water because they do not appreciate the organoleptic quality of tap water or because they do not trust the service provider. This could explain why there appears to be a regional gradient, with households in the South and Islands almost 12 percentage points more likely to purchase bottled water net of several control variables (see Table 4.4). Additional research using regional, and possibly council data on water uses and quality could help disentangle how individuals’ bottled water purchases, their resistance to tap water, and its perceived quality are imbricated.
 
7
Additional analyses, available upon request, show indeed the existence of a significant relationship between regularly keeping oneself informed about politics and paying attention not to waste water. This correlation might suggest that water use is a salient, politically connoted issue for people who are interested in politics, and resonate with the wave of activism that surrounded the 2011 referendum.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Testing the Waters: A Sociological Analysis of Domestic Water Use and Consumption
verfasst von
Filippo Oncini
Francesca Forno
Copyright-Jahr
2021
Buch
Water Law, Policy and Economics in Italy

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69074-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-69075-5

Copyright-Jahr: 2021

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69075-5_4