{"id":1195,"date":"2012-04-18T12:21:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T18:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2013-01-28T07:30:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T14:30:21","slug":"watering-the-cosmopolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1195","title":{"rendered":"Watering the Cosmopolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

I use the concept of cosmopolis<\/a> in Leonie Sandercock<\/a>\u2019s sense, referring to a city that\u2019s developed in ways sensitive to cultural diversity and its wider societal benefits (e.g., enhanced vitality and creativity). In a recent post<\/a>\u00a0I noted that the sessions devoted to \u201cWilderness City\u201d water planning at the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute\u2019s 2012 Conference<\/a> seemed to take as self-evident the meaning of terms like \u201cpublic\u201d, \u201cvalues\u201d, \u201chousing\u201d and, especially, \u201cculture.\u201d Proposed solutions to urban \u201chydro-sustainability\u201d problems were informed by a Western worldview that sees water as a scarce economic good or commodity<\/a>.\u00a0 Many of the discussions were framed in terms of white, middle-class consumer values and behavior, and the settlement preferences of Generation X<\/a> and Generation Y<\/a>.\u00a0 (Some of the RMLUI conference talks and slide shows are posted here<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In short, it\u00a0 wasn\u2019t clear that conference presenters were thinking about the city as a cosmopolitan enterprise.<\/p>\n

Resources can be valued on something other than economic, utilitarian grounds, and urban demography can be described in terms other than Gen X and Gen Y.\u00a0 It\u2019s an anthropological taken-for-granted that cultures value and assign meaning to water differently. \u00a0For many cultures water is a spiritual as well as an economic good.\u00a0 For some it’s a basic human right. \u00a0Minimally, water is integral to many if not most domains of society<\/a>. \u00a0The different meanings and structural relationships of water need to be recognized by urban planners and basic service providers. \u00a0Daily household demands for water are also cross-culturally variable. \u00a0Thus, it\u2019s problematic to assume that any particular pattern of water consumption is \u201ctypical\u201d\u00a0 for an urban population generally. \u00a0Water management issues are as much cultural\u2014or intercultural\u2014as technical.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0While particular Non-Western notions of water as sacred can easily dovetail with a Western ethos of environmental sustainability, particular regulating strategies like water metering, recycling, budgeting, etc. can conflict \u00a0with particular cultural values identifying water as sacred and a basic human right.\u00a0 Certainly, management strategies like differential pricing based on intensity of use can easily discriminate against some cultural groups and contradict broader civic commitments to \u00a0tolerance and inclusion.<\/p>\n

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Ritual Bathing in the Ganges River, India<\/p><\/div>\n

Interest in the cultural values that shape water use has been growing since at least 2000.\u00a0 In that year UNESCO<\/a> organized a session on \u201cWater and Indigenous People<\/a>\u201d at the 2nd<\/sup> World Water Forum<\/a> at The Hague.\u00a0 The organizing theme for the 3rd<\/sup> World Water Forum<\/a> in Kyoto in 2003 was “Water and Cultural Diversity<\/a>.” \u00a0 Even with these significant interventions the Cultural Diversity and Water Sustainability \u201cSession Situation Document<\/a>\u201d for the 5th<\/sup> World Water Forum<\/a> in Istanbul in 2009 noted that \u201cinterdisciplinary and systemic analysis of the relationships between cultural diversity and water, and their implications for sustainable management of water resources, are still lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s been some notable work establishing the difference that culture makes in affecting water use.\u00a0 A collection of case studies from the Environmental Evaluation Unit at the University of Cape Town–A Desktop Study on the Cultural and Religious Uses of Water<\/a><\/em>—<\/em><\/strong> describes various rituals and ceremonies in traditional African religions as well as religions like Islam and Hinduism in which water plays a central role. \u00a0Some of these rituals require facilities for water pooling.<\/em>\u00a0In other ceremonies water has to be running<\/em>.\u00a0 In still others the water must be pure<\/em> and neither tap<\/em> nor recycled<\/em> waste or \u201cgrey\u201d water will suffice. \u00a0Some of these rituals clearly have implications for urban design and architecture. \u00a0Interestingly, the report\u2019s authors note that these rituals and ceremonies have been gaining popularity in urban as well as rural areas. Thus, the widely noted world-wide migration of people from country to city is not likely to change cultural practices involving the use of water.<\/p>\n

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Faucets for performing ritual ablutions, Istanbul<\/p><\/div>\n

London–the quintessential cosmopolis–looks to be ahead of the curve in researching cultural diversity and water use in ways that can inform management decisions.\u00a0 \u00a0A 2006 paper<\/a> reporting studies of water flows in District Metered Areas (DMAs) in number of British cities noted \u201cstartling differences\u201d in water use patterns that are related to religious and cultural practices. \u00a0Characteristic patterns are found principally in Jewish and Muslim communities.\u00a0 For example, there\u2019s a Jewish peak on Friday afternoon in anticipation of Shabbat<\/a>.\u00a0 Within Muslim communities intense washing precedes daily prayers, especially during the month of Ramadan<\/a>.\u00a0 Prescriptions in Islam against wasting water align with Western conservation values but there are clearly times when unusual amounts of water must be available for various practices. \u00a0The importance of using running water in a cultural practice of \u201cwashing up\u201d is also a characteristic of Hindu groups. In this case, however, the practice links not to religious belief but rather to culturally-inscribed dietary practices: the high fat and oil content of Indian cooking. \u00a0In short:<\/p>\n

The overwhelming evidence is that religion <\/em>[and culture generally] has a fundamental bearing not only on how people use water but also on how they think about water. The overall conclusion is that it would be extremely unwise to exclude religion or ethnicity as parameters in any further research into understanding domestic water demand…Understanding such fundamental differences caused by religious practice may be critical to the planning and design of network water systems.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Hindu ritual involving water in Alagarkoil, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India<\/p><\/div>\n

A 2007 report– Cu<\/a><\/em>ltural Diversity and Sustainable Water Management in Greater London: The Research Agenda<\/a><\/em>—\u00a0\u00a0summarizes and extends work like that described above.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s very aggressive in critiquing the implicit assumption of a \u201cwhite, Christian norm\u201d of water consumption that far too often (and perhaps unconsciously) informs water management strategies. \u00a0It’s likely that such a norm also pervades other assumptions about, say, cultural standards of cleanliness. \u00a0While there are some \u00a0clear convergences between \u201cWest\u201d and \u201cOther\u201d in the ways that water is valued, the report concludes that there\u2019s \u201clittle to suggest that valuations of water in any faith systematically translate to a tendency to water conservation.\u201d Effective and sustainable\u00a0 demand management strategies require beginning<\/em> with diversity in cultural identities and values, and especially with diversity in the everyday practices, habits, and routines of the consuming population.<\/p>\n

Water management for urban sustainability in Cosmopolis–like management of the built environment generally–must accommodate cultural diversity. If it doesn’t it risks ensuring that urban and exurban infill developments remain enclaves for middle class whites; i.e., homogenous communities that are conceivably \u201cgated by other means.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I use the concept of cosmopolis in Leonie Sandercock\u2019s sense, referring to a city that\u2019s developed in ways sensitive to cultural diversity and its wider societal benefits (e.g., enhanced vitality and creativity). In a recent post\u00a0I noted that the sessions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[10,11,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainability","category-urban-studies","category-water-and-the-city"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-jh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1195"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1201,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}