Public Lecture on Fluid Politics of Viability: Conflict over More than Water in Central Iran

April 29, 2015 | 11:00 h - 12:00 h

We cordially invite you to our next public lecture on

Fluid Politics of Viability: Conflict over More than Water in Central Iran by

Ehsan Nabavi, School of Sociology, Centre for Policy Innovation, Australian National University

Date: Wednesday, April 29, 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.

Venue: ZEF, Walter-Flex-Straße 3, 53113 Bonn, room 3.032 (third floor)

Abstract:

In the context of water conflict, since the relationships among countries sharing a basin are largely governed with various types of political tools (e.g. diplomatic relations, treaties, global-scale NGOs), it is at the sub-national level where increasingly more serious water tensions require specific research attention. Looking at sub-national conflict and tracing the networks throughout history and current global discourses, the main argue of this seminar simply is to understand water conflict as a socio-political challenge rather than a technical allocation-problem (water conflict is more than water-conflict). Although it sounds evident or trivial but countries and many water conflict analysts often fail to grasp its significance.

This presentation will look at this claim through using the most conflict-ridden inter-provincial water conflict in central Iran; unpack what is meant by ‘actors’, ‘strategies’, ‘conflict assemblages’ as well as the different forms of (Bourdieusian-) ‘capitals’ embedding inside ‘conflict-networks’; discuss the ways through which the involved actors re-organized themselves to defeat the other side for the sake of their own ‘viability’. Not limited to the analytical domain, the talk will also seek to answer to an empirical research question of whether using participatory initiative, here Forum Theater, within an on-going water conflict is possible and if so is it effective (in a sense to play a role, as a new actor, in the process of ‘conflict transformation’)?

About the speaker:

<link http: sociology.cass.anu.edu.au people mr-ehsan-tavakoli-nabavi>Ehsan Nabavi holds his both B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Civil Engineering. His researches and publications particularly during his Master in Water Resources at the Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) were focused on Sustainable Development, Integrated Water Resource Management, Systems Thinking, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Theory. He particularly worked on determination of simple ‘dynamic indicators’ with the help of 'Systems Dynamic' simulation modeling for monitoring sustainable development in Zayandeh-Rud basin, one of the most complex basins in western Asia.

He joined the ANU School of Sociology in September 2012 as a PhD Scholar. In his PhD research, he is looking upon ‘how’ and ‘why’ Conflicts over Common-Pool Resources (CPRs) form and evolve over the course of time through the insights provided by Actor-Network Theory (ANT).