Methodology
Virtual water is by nature an interdisciplinary domain and therefore the research will build upon and expand its horizons in human geography, political ecology and international political economy to establish a novel theoretical framework for the study of virtual water.
The connection between virtual water theories and political ecology has been neglected, as virtual water literature has focused mainly on the global scale of analysis and its relation to the national scale. This has sometimes disconnected virtual water analysis from the local scale, which is where very often political action is taken and power relations are played out.
JustWater politicises the concept of virtual water by exploring the dynamics at the regional and district level.
The research politicises the environmental issue of water scarcity in vulnerable aquifers and water-scarce areas by establishing a precise geo-location of where it occurs, and analysing the relationships between political, economic and social factors linked to virtual water and crop exports.
The research merges the methods of statistics and econometric analysis of virtual water to test specific concepts in critical hydro politics in the broader field of human geography and political ecology, including an analysis of the female/male ratio of farmers, agricultural workers and water community of Italy, documenting their overall imbalance. JustWater thus integrates Gender Studies with Virtual Water.
JustWater is completely mainstreamed for gender, covering alongside diversity and minority issues, such as migrant issues and human rights of migrant workers. The project provides an analysis of the gender dimension of the Italian water community alongside sex-disaggregated data on farm ownership and the agricultural workforce. While global virtual water datasets are gender-blind – as they exclusively refer to water embedded in crop production without discussing social aspects – this research will address the social dimension in a gendered way, given the significant gender imbalances in land ownership and water management roles (WWDR 2018). This is an absolute novelty in the virtual water literature. The research covers minority issues, migrant issues, human rights of migrant workers and the lack of decent work conditions20 within the analysis of the socio-economic aspects (WP5).
The gender dimension of this project is extremely innovative and transformative, especially as the final workshop would be the first sex-disaggregated workshop ever performed within the Italian water community. This action will provide sex-disaggregated data on water-decision making and water managers in Italy. The workshop will expose the Italian water community, which has historically been male-dominated, to the results of JustWater through a gender-transformative technique.
This gender-transformative activity addresses the issue of unconscious bias and systemic structural barriers faced by women in the sector of water expertise in Italy. The workshop will therefore expose Italy's water decision-makers not only to the results of this research but also to their own gender-role imbalance. This is coherent with the use of sex-disaggregated indicators recommended by the United Nations regarding SDG5 (gender equality) and SDG6 (water) and the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy for 2020-2025 and in line with the Gender Equality in Research and Innovation.
References
Allan,T. 2011 Virtual water: tackling the threat to our planet's most precious resource. London, I.B. Tauris.
Loftus, A. (2009) "Rethinking Political Ecologies of Water", Third World Quarterly,30(5), 953-968.
Bryant, R. ed. 2015 International handbook of political ecology. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Robbins, P. (2012) Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. Chichester: WileyBlackwell
Tooze, R and May, C. eds. 1994 Authority and Markets – Susan Strange's writings in International Political Economy. Hampshire, Palgrave MacMillan.
Dalin, C., et al. (2017). "Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade." Nature 543(7647): 700-704.
Greco, F. (2012). Introducing an historical perspective to virtual water flows: how hydrometabolism explains the “bad” virtual water flows from non renewable/overexploited groundwater, EGU Leonardo 2012
Sojamo, S., Keulertz, M., Warner, J., & Allan, J. A. (2016). Virtual water hegemony: the role of agribusiness in global water governance. In The Private Sector and Water Pricing in Efficient Urban Water Management (pp. 95-108). Routledge.
CGIL 2020 Quinto Rapprto Agromafie e Caporalato,CGIL Roma 2020; ISTAT (2022) /°Censimento Generale Agricoltura, Istat.it Censimento agricoltura;
Hamdy A., Quagliariello R., Venezian-Scarascia M.E. Integration of gender dimension in water management in the Mediterranean region; Bari's workshop review. In : Hamdy A. (ed.), Sagardoy J.A. (ed.), El Kady M. (ed.), Quagliariello R. (ed.), Bogliotti C. (ed.). Training of trainers in Integration of Gender Dimension in water management in the Mediterranean region. INGEDI project. Bari: CIHEAM, 2004. p. 7-10 (Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 64).
European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, (2022). Towards inclusive gender equality in research and innovation, Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/162481
European Commission New visions for Gender Equality 2019 Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2019 ISBN 978-92-76-12015-5 doi: 10.2838/307975
Hoekstra, A., Chapagain, A., Aldaya, M., and Mekonnen, M.: The Water Footprint Assessment Manual: Setting the Global Standard, Earthscan, London,2011.
Objectives
Theoretical goals: JustWATER will draw upon insights from Human Geography, Political Economy and Political Ecology. Introducing the sub-national scale of analysis constitutes a substantial theoretical innovation in the virtual water literature, which has so far concentrated on the global and national scale.
Practical goals: JustWATER will provide policy-oriented tools and end-users data to serve citizen science and open science practices, allowing not only interoperability of research outputs, but also replicability in other countries.
Overall goals: to construct a theoretical and analytical framework, create a set of information and policy tools and to involve the Italian water community of experts