Andrea Bernal

Luis Rivas
email: larivas33@hotmail.com

M. Sc Lawyer

Local development in peri-urban and rural areas based on co-management for small water supplies in Colombia

Keywords: Small water supply, communitarian water management, environmental management, Colombia

It is estimated that more than 12.000 small water supplies are managed by communities in Colombia. Nevertheless, government has not public policies and does not exist a special legal framework for these organizations. The research called "Co-management model for small water supplies, review the state-of-the-art of co-management, describes the phenomena, and propose predefined variables to analyze some Colombian small communities located in rural areas in order to develop model based in actors and roles. It shows how the government can support this management alternative, and contribute to reach a better local development based on access to drinking water and sewage for lowincome people.

INTRODUCTION

The sector of water and sewage services in Colombia have experimented a real improvement following a mayor legislative act -Law 142 of 1994. The coverage and efficiency in urban areas reach 90%, as a result of public policies that have been focused on the support for strong operators. Nevertheless, the situation in rural areas are critical, because the drinking water coverage is 55% and the sewage pipelines coverage is of 28% (DANE, 2005), and water quality its not frequently tested.

In Colombia, drinking water and sewage are provided by public or private companies, under different management models. Usually, small scale local operators provide water supply or sewage solutions in peripheral urban and rural lands, mostly found in slum areas. According to the Rural Sanitary Inventory (MAVDT, 2005), there are approximately 12.000 small water supplies for human consumption in Colombia. Although, reliable data does not exist, it could be calculated that near to 90% of these systems are operating thanks to communitarian management (SSPD, 2010) As a central hypothesis of the research presented in this paper, it postulates that communitarian management for small water supplies is essential to satisfy food and sanitary of the Colombian peri-urban and rural population, and its also the way to empower communities and to allow them to reach an improved local development.

Conceptual Framework

According to recent academic publications, it has been postulated that communitarian management is a valuable initiative towards the enforcement of social networks, but requires institutional support provided by state to stimulate the real participation of stakeholders in the national, intermediate and local level. This conceptual scope could help communitarial organizations to improve their accountability, reach environmental, financial and social sustainability, and use technologies adapted to community capacities and needs. This vision has been named co-management, which means local community driven development -LCDD, with institutional support. (Binswanger -Mithze and De Regh, 2010) Communitarian water and sewage systems are traditional social structures. They exist in locations where the local community has resolved the water supply problem by itself promoting participative action and collective ownership. To include communities and stakeholders, particularly women and young people, assure the social sustainability. (Lockwood, 2004) Co-management gives feasibility to water access, allows communities to acquire experience in management of different natural resources and enforces the underlying social structures that support local development. Sometimes, communities are working together in second level associations helping to improve management performance, and generate scale economies for activities that can be managed collectively, with greater success. On the other hand, these associations could become the scenario to promote water supplies within a same river basin, working together, to improve local governance and to mitigate the impact on the ecosystems.

The doctoral research named "Communitarian Management Model for Small Water Supplies -Observation of Colombian Cases" began in September of 2010. As a first goal, the research presents the state-of-the-art of communitarian management, formulates a characterization of the studied problem and explores some Colombian cases. The intention, afterwards, is to release the constituent variables of communitarian management for small water supplies, in order to formulate a management model to explain the interaction between these variables, thus identifying improvement opportunities and applying strategies of adaptive management.

State-of-the-art

There is an important amount of documentary information of small drinking water supplies and sewage which also relates to communitarian management. The rewieved publications throughout this research, are impressive, because they show diversity and theoretical depth. Since Elinor Ostrom presented his work, (2000) the study of -auto-managed -organizations has aquired importance, like a main actor, and this is more relevant in developing countries where they are improving their quality of life.

The World Bank, and several nongovernmental organizations have become interested in the phenomenon of the communitarian management of water, and its economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects. Similarly the CEPAL has sponsored important studies about local drinking water supply and sewage solutions in Latin America (Doroujeanni, 1988[START_REF] Jouralev | Los servicios de agua potable y saneamiento en el umbral del siglo XXI[END_REF]-Carrasco, 2011). The diagnosis background and subsequent formulation of public policies in Bolivia, are of mandatory reference in the Andean region at have been clearly exhibited by Quiroz (2006). Here, the communitarian management as an alternative for water auto -supply, with an acquired legal route and a management model was recently published. (FPS, 2009) In Colombia, several descriptive an exploratory studies have developed the communitarian water management from different perspectives (anthropological, economic, organizational, historical), and these reviews provide remarkable elements for the characterization of the small drinking water supplies. Without trying to be exhaustive, it is worth to emphasize the work of Mario Pérez, 2001, Ana Quintana, 2005[START_REF] Cadavid | Políticas públicas para la prestación de los servicios de agua potable y saneamiento en las áreas rurales[END_REF], Ernesto Guhl, 2008, Nora Cadavid, 2008, Maya et al, 2010. Nevertheless, that works do not approach the phenomenon of communitarian management as a management problem. In consequence, this research tries to propose a model to understand the details of this type of management.

MATERIAL & METHODS

Sources

This research is based on three sources: the review of published management models, the participant observation of real cases between 2006 to 2010, with the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios -SSPD -Grupo de Pequeños Prestadores (Surveillance Institution for Public Services in Colombia -Small Scale Operators Group), and the simulation applying a modeling dynamic software.

Expected Outcomes

By this time, first stage has finalized. As a primary conclusion, it is observed that the phenomena is over-diagnosed. The elements showed before, on the characterization, were the basis to formulate a problem tree, followed by a simple model as an order criteria.

Right now, it is intended to detail the quantitative and qualitative variables and create the indicators for every one. (Table 1.) After, the variables will be checked on three or five real cases, to validate them. (Fig 1 .) For the last stage, the variables will be applied on a dynamic modeling software named STELLA in order to simulate the interactions and propose alternatives to improve management strategies. (Fig 2 .)

Second stage

The exogenous and endogenous variables will be detailed, formulating the indicators for each.

Third stage

Apply a survey or check list with three / five previously selected cases, with the purposed of validating the formulated variables

Fourth stage

The variables will be included in a dynamic modeling software (f. ex. STELLA has been used successfully to describe complex environmental and social problems) to simulate interactions

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Characterization of Small Water Supplies in Colombia.

Institutional

Regulation: In Colombia, there is no law to regulate small water supplies. All operators must obey the law 142 of 1994, that is a regulation developed for big or medium size urban water supplies. The institutional invisibility of small systems has been caused by the lack of specialized regulation, accurate to rural and peri-urban life. At present, communitarial managed water supplies depend on private initiative, and they do not receive significant state support.

In 2011, The Ministry of Environment, Household and Territorial Development -Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial -MAVDT -, began he process to formulate public policies for drinking water and sewage in rural areas, in order to develop the legal framework for small scale local operators in rural areas. The accurate and oportune treatment of conflicts is urgently required to recover the local water governance. The most remarkable conflicts are: i. degradation of water quality for inadequate use of pesticides, agro -industrial activities or minning. ii) minimal recognition of traditional customary practices of water management from rural, indigenous, afro-descendent or other ethnical communities. iii) difficulties to recognize some real rights of way, and/or iv) the absence of clear rules about ownership on the assets and the formal schemes of communitarian organization. (Carrasco, 2011)

Surveillance and control : The avaliable information is based on a software application -an unified information system called SUI -and the data is fed on line. At the same timen the autorities follow and solve the complaints and claims presented by users. Nevertheless, rural operators do not have the capacities to collect and report data, in consequence, it is impossible to maintain updated and reliable information about rural areas. The public agency for surveillance and control of the household public services -SSPD, has developed special strategies to support small scale local operators.

Local context

Traditional customary practices of water management : The cultural pluralism of Colombia constitutes a challenge for the formulation of national policies and general models. Usually, the authorities impose water and sewage solutions but they do not consider the local particularitities of the rural life, nor the social structure of the beneficiaries.

Environmental sustainability: Some initiatives of protection of river basins are taking place in Colombia. These projects have been financed with public and private resources, but is necessary to develop and spread mechanisms to grant the preservation of environmental balance. The last rainy season, December 2010, left 2.200.000 people homeless, demonstrating that small water supplies are not ready to face the damage caused by the climatic change. Usually waters served in rural areas are not treated, which calls for urgent action to mitigate the environmental impact on rural life.

Operation

Investment: During the last decade, the state was not interested in supporting rural water or sewage solutions. In peri-urban areas, the coverage was increased through regular operators, absorbing the communitarial organizations traditionally located in these areas. The actual investment scheme, named departmental water plans -PDA -, is focused on increase coverage to small towns, with preference in urban areas.

Technology: In Colombia, it is usual to consider only tecnical criteria for the design, construction and maintenance of water and sewage systems, without considering community needs and preferences. The facilities given to the communities are frecuently abandoned soon after, because the technology involved is not adequate to the people´s payment and manteinance capacities; some civil constructions and equipments are imposed, against the traditions of ethnical communities (for example, there are systems of disinfection with application of chlorine, designed for indigenous communities, where the chlorine consumption is not accepted culturally).

Additionaly, some rural people do not have tap water, and have to pay high bills to buy botted or pumped water, because the use of alternative drinking water solutions have not been expanded. There are water supplies with no clarification and/or disinfection, and with deficient treatment too. The great distances in the rural territory limit the availability of laboratories or procedures that guarantee a suitable control and following for water quality provided.

Management:

The deficient organization and qualification of small scale operators and their minimum technical and administrative capacities to develop an efficient management to offer sustainable services, are related to the informality of communitarial organizations. In order to guarantee the local operative sustainability, the state should implement strategies to support and provide technical attendance to operations and management under regional schemes, thus generating some scale economies.

Governance

Associative Estrategy: In Colombia there some groups of water suppliers, (f. ex. -AQUACOL, FACORIS, ACUA) -which indicate that local small scale operators are interested in enforcing the intermediate level, but they are not formally identified, since it depends exclusively on private iniciative.

Formal recognition : The majority of communitarian water and sewage systems are usually operated under informal organization schemes. They have difficulties to collect and keep documents and data, to celebrate formal contracts or to assume the defense of their rights by themselves. The state does not help them to structure their communitarial solutions, and to formalize their legal requirements are difficult and expensive.

Communications: Communication between communities and its stakeholders are usually direct and spontaneous, but the new technologies (internet, cellphones, networks) are stretching the linkages. Some institutional tools are not considering communitarian communication capabilities.

Models

During the first stage of the research, after the review of multiple management models applied to environmental problems, some essential elements have been identified to describe the phenomenon. The proposed models are formulated on a qualitative approach, to be understood by communities and non-scholars, and could vary in every case.

CONCLUSIONS

This is an excellent opportunity to research management focused on small water supplies in Colombia, because state agencies are considering national policies for supplying water in rural and peri-urban areas. This research could provide new elements of discussion on future policies, and contribute to reach a better local development based on access to drinking water and sewage for low-income people. [START_REF] Cadavid | Políticas públicas para la prestación de los servicios de agua potable y saneamiento en las áreas rurales[END_REF]-Bernal-Paper-2011-06-22.doc

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Small water providers on rural that have accepted to participate as study cases

Fig. 3 .Fig 4 .

 34 Fig. 3. Model to identify stakeholders over small water supplies.

TABLE 1 : Stages and research advances

 1

	Research Stage	Research advance
		State-of-the-art, small water supply characterization,
	First stage	stakeholders map, initial model used of communitarian water management.

•

  LOCKWOOD, H. (2004) Scaling Up Community Management of Rural Water Supply. International Water and Sanitation Centre -IRC. Extracted in 14-10-10 from: http://www.irc.nl/page/8857 • Ministerio del Ambiente Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial -MAVDT (2005) Política Pública de Abastecimiento de Agua y Saneamiento Básico para la zona rural de Colombia. Bogotá, Colombia. • MAYA, D., RAMOS, P., ACEVEDO, G., GARRIDO, E., TOBON, G., ROJAS, H. (2010) Conflictos socioambientales y recurso hídrico: Una aproximación para su identificación y análisis. Ed. Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá. • MORIARTY, P.and VERDEMATO, T. (2010) Report of the International Symposium on Rural Water Services Providing Sustainable Water Services at Scale, 13 -15 April 2010. Kampala, Uganda. Extracted in 14-10-10 from:http://www.aguaconsult.co.uk/uploads/pdfs/Report%20Symposium%20on%20Rural%20W ater%20Services.pdf • OSTROM, E. (2000) El gobierno de los bienes comunes. La evolución de las instituciones de acción colectiva. Mexico, UNAM -CRIM -CFE. • QUINTANA, A. (2008) El conflicto por la gestión del servicio de acueducto en Dosquebradas (Risaralda -Colombia) Un estudio desde la ecología política. Tesis de Doctorado. Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona. • QUIROZ, F. (Ed). (2006) Apoyo a la gestión de Comités de Agua Potable. Experiencias de fortalecimiento a comités de Agua Potable comunitarios en Bolivia y Colombia. Cochabamba Bolivia: Etreus impresores • Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios -SSPD (2010) Presentación Institucional -Congreso Nacional de Acueductos Rurales, Sabaneta, Antioquia, Septiembre 30 y Octubre 1 de 2010. • Water Safety Program -WSP (2008) Operadores Locales de Pequeña Escala en América Latina. Su participación en la prestación de los servicios de agua y saneamiento. Extracted in 10-12-10 from: www.iadb.org/intal/intalcdi/PE/2008/02038.pdf • World Bank. (2002) Key design principles for Community Water and Sanitation Services.Extracted in 14-10-10 from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTECAREGTOPCOMDRIDEV/Resources/rural2.pdf

01-WWW-YES


Rafael Kruter Flores
email: rkflores@ea.ufrgs.br

Distinction between privatization of services and commodification of goods: the case of the water supply in Porto Alegre

Keywords: Privatization, public services, common goods, social struggle, North/South

One of the main debates regarding urban water in the last years concerns the privatization of water and sewage services. The critique of the privatization of the services is usually associated with the critique of the commodification of the good. This paper makes a conceptual distinction between both processes, reflecting on the case of the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The research utilized the case study method, using basically secondary data. The institution that provides the services in this city is being considered a model of a public service by many authors. However, the historical analysis of the structuring of the water supply in Porto Alegre shows that there is a process of commodification of water even if the institution remains as a public service.

INTRODUCTION

Since at least 1977, when the United Nations organized the 'United Nations Water Conference' in Mar del Plata, Argentina, water has become one of the main issues in the international political agenda. In this context, the water basin participatory model created in France during the twentieth century became the panacea for the problems of scarcity and pollution faced by a world progressively more industrialized, with constantly growing cities. The degradation of water and its consequent bad quality resulted in a discourse, formalized at the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, Ireland, in 1992, which states that water has an economic value. These principles were known as the Dublin Principles and began to guide the formulation of policies, becoming a conditionality of loans given by multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The principle of the water as an economic good authorized these multilateral institutions to argue in favor of privatization of inefficient public companies worldwide, but specially in the poorest countries (PETRELLA, 2002). Since then, in the neoliberal context which characterized the nineties, many countries, states and cities privatized their water services. The resistance to the neoliberal agenda was successful in many countries. Different types of civil mobilizations emerged in many countries. In Latin America, services conceded to foreign private companies returned to the responsibility of the State as a consequence of social struggles, protests, plebiscites and many other forms of social participation. The civil war in Cochabamba, Bolivia, knowned as the 'Water war', became a symbol of another discourse that emerged in these resistance actions, the discourse of the water as a common good, instead of economic. In this discourse, water services are the responsibility of public institutions, and cannot be privatized. For its unquestionable importance, these facts are being analyzed by activists, researchers and scholars organized in social movements, NGOs, research groups, among others. However, two shortcomings have been noted in these analyses. First: the debate remains superficial when it focus only on the failures that result from the privatization of water and fails to consider deepest mechanism of the capitalist system that are on the origin of the privatizing process. (SANTOS, 2006, OLIVEIRA andLEWIS, 2004). Second is the attempt to find solutions to these problems through discursive struggles, awareness and diplomacy, advocating the promotion of policies and social contracts in the circuits of international power to ensure water as a human right. In other words, these authors/activists seek the solution by promoting more humanist social policies (BARLOW, 2009;PETRELLA, 2002). However, history has proved that these attempts are consistently failing: the initiatives of the meeting in Mar del Plata in 1977, the goals established in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, as well as in the Johannesburg Conference are systematically failing. The 'Millennium Goals' are moving on the same way. Other areas of study focus the institutional mechanisms of neoliberal hegemony synthesized in the Dublin Principles, arguing that it is an environmentally sustainable and economically necessary approach. Those reviews, by staying in the same frame of reference used in the formulation of the Principles of Dublin -economic and institutional approaches -do not allow a critical and reflexive overview of the contradictory aspects of these policies. The approach of Swyngedouw, Kaïka and Castro (2003, p. 134) capture the contradictory aspects of the water provision as a wider social phenomena. The authors defend a more comprehensive and integrated approach in which supply of water is integrated with health and sanitation policy, ecological considerations, socio-economic processes, and urban planning and governance systems. The increasing fragmentation of policy domains (partly as a result of commodification and privatization) makes this objective more remote than ever. In this sense, the authors make an important distinction that, in our view, needs to be developed from an empirical and theoretical point of view, specially when we consider the fragmentation of the develoment of the 'water as a common good' discourse as part of what the authors named the fragmentation of policy domains. This distinction is stated by the authors as follows. "While commodification, in one hand, referes to turning water from a public good into a marketable commodity subject to principles governing a market economy (regardless of nature of the ownership of both water and the water companies), privatization referes to changing ownership of water infrastructure and/or to the private management of water services. (SWYNGEDOUW et al., 2003, p. 129)." This paper developes this argument, reflecting on the case of the city of Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. Porto Alegre is internationally knowned as the city of the World Social Forum. The people of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, of which Porto Alegre is the capital, are characterized by their political consciousness, cultural identities and valorization of its own history, land and natural resources. Specifically regarding water services, the municipal institution called Departamento Municipal de Água e Esgoto (DMAE) has been historically another motif of proud to the inhabitants of Porto Alegre. Since its foundation in 1963 until now, DMAE has alway been a public institution. Their technical procedures are national reference and the tap water in Porto Alegre is safe, despite all problems of pollution and cyanobacterium in the Guaiba Lake, the main source of water of the city. During the neoliberal context of the nineties, many analysts and authors recognized DMAE as model of public service and a symbol in the social struggle against the privatization. The analysis that follows attempts to relativize these assertions, having the distinction made by Swyngedouw, Kaïka and Castro (2003) as a background. The main argument to be developed is that the structuring of the water supply in Porto Alegre, considering the loans of multilateral institutions from the North, shows that there is a process of commodification of water even if the institution remains as a public property. In other words, we try to argue in favor of a more accurate analysis when critique is made on modes of appropriation of water. Privatization and commodification are not the same process, but both processes are part of the same system. Thus, in order to critique the system, it is necessary to understand exactly when and where privatization occurs; and when and where commodification takes place. We propose contribute to develop the concept of the water as a common good. This concept lacks theoretical development and for this reason, it is oftenly confused and conceived as the same discourse of the 'water as an economic good', as for example in the approach of Barraqué (1995). For him, the French model has succeeded in overcoming the contradiction between public and private ownership by creating a new form of management based on the principle of use. Thus, the model brings a paradigm shift, because it attenuates the importance of the paradigm public/private and questions the traditional roles of the market economy through cooperation between supply and demand. Thus, to move forward in the development of a conception of the water as a common good capable of overcoming its contradictions with the conception of water as an economic good, as stated in the Dublin Principles approach, it is necessary to develop theoretical references that considers water in all its aspects. Those range from the economic to the social, from the environmental to the politcal. In addition, these aspects cannot be treated separately one from another and from the most deep social structures of the capitalist system and its dynamics of appropriation. According to Swyngedouw (2005, p. 81), tactics of "accumulation by dispossession" have become pivotal strategies in contemporary global accumulation dynamics [...] in the context of the recent waves of privatization and de-collectivization of water -in particular, urban water -resources around the world. The 'accumulation by dispossession' is a process explained by David Harvey, by which capital also expands by incorporating resources, peoples, activities, and lands that hitherto were managed, organized and produced under social relations other than capitalist ones (SWYNGEDOUW, 2005, p. 82). In this sense, this author affirms that 'we shall consider the radically contested and contestable nature of such strategies of dispossession', task that this paper aims to do.

MATERIAL & METHODS

The distinction between commodification and privatization can also be regarded as a contradiction between those processes. An understanding of the world contradictory structures and relationships can only be made by a consciousness that interprets the data of experience in their contradictory manifestations: "one must admit that contradictions have a foundation in the things themselves and that these are the starting point " (LEFEBVRE, 2009, p. 28).

If there are 'pros and con', 'yes and no', it is because the realities have not only multiple aspects, but changeable and contradictory facets. Thus, human thought, which fails to capture at once the real things, is forced to grope and walk through their own difficulties and contradictions until the shifting realities, unstable and real contradictions. (LEFEBVRE, 2009, p. 28) Following the recommendations of Lefebvre (2009), this paper adopts a theoretical framework and a methodological approach that seeks to capture the contradictory nature of the social world.

To operationalize this, we utilized a case study method, more specifically, an illustrative case. According to Siggelkow (2007), the illustrative case allows to make a conceptual contribution, using the empirical case as an illustration. A work with a case as an illustration must present the case after the theory and thus make analysis and comparisons with it. However, in this case, we present the case before the theory, in order to illustrate the case with theory, and not theory with the case.

The study was conducted also as an 'intrinsic case', in the typology of Stake ( 2005). An intrinsic case seeks a better understanding of a particular case. "The study is not undertaken primarily because the case represents other cases or because it addresses a particular problem, rather, because the case itself is of interest, in all its particulars" (STAKE, 2005, p. 445). The intrinsic interest of this case is the fact already mentioned that Porto Alegre's water service is considered a model of public service and a symbol in the struggle against privatization, and the contradictory fact that the structuration of water services in this city can be regarded as process of commoditization of water. The data that underpin the arguments were obtained in secondary databases, divided in scientific publications (books and journal papers), articles in newspapers and magazines and institutional documents and other information available on the Internet. The primary data analyzed are official documents dating back to the historical moment of the creation of the DMAE, as the minutes and drafts of laws.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The public water supply in Porto Alegre, from its earliest settlements in the mid-seventeenth century, had characteristics that coexisted at different times: the withdrawal of water directly from Guaíba Lake by the population; the construction of public sources that carried water from the Guaíba to the village; the creation of two private companies, which sold water directly using fountains; the activity of pipeiros, selling water door to door; and the construction of the Moinhos de Vento Plant in 1927. This station treated and stored water and distributed it to the city districts. To build this plant, it was necessary US$ 3.5 million at the time. The amount was loaned in 1928 by the U.S. Londeburg Thelmann & Co., bearing interest at 7.5% per year and payment period of 40 years. Franco (1998) identifies that moment as a revolution in the quality of water supplied to Porto Alegre. The new station allowed to supply important neighborhoods where lived the city's elite, which were previously only supplied with wells. At that time, hydrometers were first used and the users would be charged for excess of water consumed. During the 40's and 50's, the city experienced a period of accelerated growth. However, the expansion of the water supply systems did not keep up with the growth of the city, its stations were working at full capacity and even with overload, damaging the equipment. In 1958, the shortcomings were evident. In this context, and given the need to expand and qualify the services of water supply in the city, a working group composed by the Municipal Executive developed a project to transform the municipal authority into an autarchy and, at the same time, negotiate a loan with the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB). The documents of that time make clear that the autarchy was a conditionality to access the loan. On December 15, 1961, the Act creating the autarchy was approved. The Departamento Municipal de Água e Esgoto (DMAE) was created. Negotiations with the IDB extended for another two years until the deal was closed. The IDB loan to the Municipality of Porto Alegre was approved on December 1963 and established the conditions that DMAE should follow to get the loan. Among these conditions, we highlight the following:

• take the necessary measures so that the rates of water and sanitation services financed with the loan proceeds would produce enough revenue to cover at least the costs of operating and maintaining these systems; • in a period of twelve months, should have been in place all steps to establish an adequate system of administration and accounting; • install hydrometers so that by 1967, 80% of water was to be measured;

• hire a high-level consultancy for the preparation of a reorganization plan in Porto Alegre, this advice should be approved by the IDB (BANCO INTERAMERICANO PARA EL DESAROLLO, 1963). According to Costa (1981, p.73), three measures adopted in the two years subsequent to obtaining resources from the IDB symbolize the new era of supply in Porto Alegre.

The change in the charging method: it was first released as a tax on the assessed value of each property and now transformed in a charge proportional to the consumption (...); the cadastral survey of all consumers in the city, made in 1966 (...); and a Sewage Master Plan for Porto Alegre, in the same year.

The loan from the IDB was in line with the former creation of an autarchy, which further enhanced the control systems of water supply and management systems of the body, as conditions of the loan. As an autarchy, DMAE gained autonomy of operation, collection and investment. The institution has benefited from this condition and the fact that it serves the main urban agglomeration of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. According to the mechanism of crosssubsidy, receipts in places where there is urban concentration -and therefore more profitablemust be applied in places where there is little concentration, as rural areas -where the cost of bringing water is higher. In the case of DMAE, this does not happen, for almost all its operating area is urban. Therefore, their service is more profitable than, for example, the Companhia Riograndense de Abastecimento (CORSAN), which serves almost all the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul state. When the first loans were contracted to re-design water services in Porto Alegre, first in 1928 and then in 1963, many measures were taken in order to generate revenue in the future. Water and its supply started to have, besides a utility function required by a booming city, an exchange function, by which water would be transformed into a mean of payment of loans. Besides the use-value, water started to also have an exchange-value. The use-values are the qualitative aspects of something, that make it useful for some purpose. "Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth" (MARX, 1999, p. 1). Besides the use-value, Marx examines the goods as exchange-values. Unlike the use-value which only appears in the exchange between different use-values, which varies depending on the usevalue being exchanged, the place where the exchange takes place, time, needs etc.

Exchange value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort, a relation constantly changing with time and place. Hence exchange value appears to be something accidental and purely relative, and consequently an intrinsic value, i.e., an exchange value that is inseparably connected with, inherent in commodities, seems a contradiction in terms (MARX, 1993, p. 1).

Thus, water as exchange-value can only exist when its use-value is exchanged for another usevalue (which could be any other good, through the intermediation of money or not). This is where the water takes the form of a commodity. "Whoever directly satisfies his wants with the product of his own labour, creates, indeed, use values, but not commodities. In order to produce the latter, he must not only produce use values, but use values for others, social use values" (MARX, 1993, p. 1). What makes something a commodity is the concretization of their ability to be exchanged for other goods. This reflection allows us to interpret the history of public supply in Porto Alegre as a process of transforming water into a commodity. When local public agencies have taken loans and restructured its operations in order to obtain enough revenue to repay the loan, the water appeared not only as use-value -to those who receive water at home and make different uses of it -, but also as exchange-value -when the water is exchanged for money, which in turn will be replaced by capital and the interest in advance. The loan payment is made, in essence, with water: the money is only as a medium of exchange.

CONCLUSIONS

The wave of neoliberal policies and the privatization of water services in many countries of the South had originated, as a response, a wider social mobilization and the emergence of a new concept of water as a common good. As every social phenomena, this concept is not free of contradictions. In our view, the main contradiction to be overcome lies in the different ways in which water can be appropriated in current processes of accumulation by dispossession. In this sense, the case of water supply in Porto Alegre is very illustrative. The city has built a model of public water supply, and a symbol of the possibility of public services with quality and social control (MALTZ, 2007;VIERO, 2004), which somehow contributes to the struggle against the privatization of water services. At the same time, the very establishment of this public service was made through a process of commodification of water, which is a different way by which water can be appropriated. The critique of appropriation of water has to consider most deep social structures of capitalist modes of production, circulation and consumption. The establishment of water supply services in the South has been made, in many cases, with foreign capital looking for profitability, which is a way of increasing private capital produced elsewhere. Thus, it is by itself a way of appropriation of values generated through water resources. In: Capitalism Nature Socialism. V. 16. N. 1. March, 2005. • SWYNGEDOUW, E., KAÏKA, M., CASTRO, E (2003). Urban water: a political ecology perspective. In: Built environment, v. 28, n. 2. P. 124-137. • VIERO, Odete (2004). Porto Alegre, participação popular: controle social e gestão pública de água e saneamento. In: GROSSE, R., THIMMEL, S., TAKS, S. Las canillas abiertas de America Latina. Montevideo: Casa Bertold Brecht. -2011-Flores-Paper-2011_04_04.doc

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  BANCO INTERAMERICANO PARA EL DESAROLLO (1963). Prestamo al departamento municipal de agua e esgotos.• BARLOW, Maude(2009). Água, pacto azul: a crise global da água e a batalha pelo controle da água potável no mundo. São Paulo, MBooks do Brasil. • COSTA, Telmo Cardoso (1981). Histórico dos sistemas de água e esgotos da cidade de Porto Alegre -1779 a 1981. Porto Alegre: DMAE. • FRANCO, Sérgio da Costa (1998). Porto Alegre -Guia Histórico. Porto Alegre. Editora da Universidade/UFRGS. • LEFEBVRE, Henri (2009). Marxismo. Porto Alegre: L&PM. • MARX, Karl (1993). Capital. Volume 1. Section 1 -The two factors of a commodity: usevalue and value. Marx and Engels Internet Archive. Available in http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/index.htm. Access in April, 2, 2011. • MALTZ, Helio (2007). Água de Porto Alegre: pública e para todos. In: BALANYÁ, B. (et al.) Por um modelo público de água. São Paulo: Casa Amarela. • OLIVEIRA, Oscar e LEWIS, Tom (2004). Cochabamba -water war in Bolivia. Cambridge: Southendpress. • PETRELLA, Riccardo (2002). O manifesto da água: argumentos para um contrato mundial. Petrópolis: Vozes. • SANTOS, Carlos (2006). Aguas em movimiento: la resistência a la privatizacion del agua em Uruguay. Montevideo: Edicion de los autores. • SIGGELKOW, N (2007). Persuasion with case studies. Academy of Management Journal , v. 50, nº 1, p. 20-24. • STAKE, Robert (2005). Qualitative case studies. In: DENZIN, N. e LINCOLN, Y. The sage handbook of qualitative research. 3 ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications. • SWYNGEDOUW, Eric. Dispossessing H2O: The Contested Terrain of Water Privatization.


Matias N Tolosa

E A Pinto

Urban Hydro-Sociology: analysis of the mutual care between waters and citizenship in Brazil

Keywords: Hydro-Sociology, citizenship, reciprocity, waters, water footprint

To do research about water is like doing about life: everything fits inside that field. To choose an approach facing the amplitude of this topic is mandatory for this kind of research, for that reason neologism 'Hydro-Sociology' is proposed as a methodological tool (a mirror showing reciprocity issues) to apply the scientific philosophy of the experimental phenomenology to a 150 km 2 , highly urbanized microbasin through a qualitative, quantitative indicator. The research discuss that reciprocity through the analysis of the mutual care between water and citizenship at Riberão das Anhumas microbasin in Brazil, with a methodology based on a phenomenological reflection on the urban indicator 'Water Footprint' and its applicability in the case study, disserting about the archetypical "matter of life and health" aided from the wise sight of transdisciplinary thinker-actors.

INTRODUCTION

In his biological-urban approach and together with the idea of reciprocity through an economic interpretation of history, criticizing both orthodox and socialist interpretations from an evolutionary one, Scotish biologist and urban planner Patrick Geddes first named the term 'social basin', at a conference spoken in 1923 at the New School of Social Research of New York entitled "The valley section from hills to sea". There he stated (GEDDES, 1959), in an innovative sight on evolutionary biology, that throughout generations the landscape we transform do transforms us, that we are cultivated by our agriculture (farming habits), as differs the oriental rice-culture from the occidental corn-culture. Following this reasoning, can we think that we are domesticated by our cattle, bodily shaped by our chairs and car seats and, why not, qualified by the water we manage and the social ways we do? This paper, throwing an incipient thesis onto public discussion, discourses on it. The case study centers on the microbasin framework. After a survey on Water Footprint indicator through reflective thought (reciprocity), 2 aspects will be integrated into the methodology prior applying it on the microbasin as an experimental indicator: (a) qualitative issues and (b) a 'Urban Water Footprint' (real estates as immovable goods). Reciprocity travels from the obvious to the fascinating, in the analogous path that Andrei Tarkovsky crossed from typical to unique in his film works, explicitly explained in 1987 in "Sculpting in time". Reprocity is symbolized with in the thinking-acting figures below.

MATERIAL & METHODS

To study the reciprocity embedded inside the mutual care between waters and citizenship in Brazil, 2 materials and a two-phase method are selected: as the research materials, is used the Water Footprint indicator as the main matter researched (the object being reflected on), and the Brazilian Anhumas Project as specific field study from where data is recycled and collected; for the method, a first phase reflects on the water footprint indicator through experimental phenomenology, a second one applies an experimental indicator on the Anhumas microbasin (case study) through experimental mathematical and cartographical tools based on a Water Footprint indicator qualitative checking.

Water Footprint indicator is the main matter researched, the object being reflected on. It is a geographically explicit indicator about the water use embedded in goods and services production and relates to global trade, that in theory synthesize quantitative and qualitative information but in practice has a lack of transdisciplinary reflection because of being in an incipient consolidation process. It was elaborated from the virtual-water concept calculation methodology (ALLAN, 1998) focused on commercial and geopolitical issues, so it opens a field to research its sense and operativity in social, political water management topics. The second phase in methodology is an application of an experimental indicator on the Anhumas microbasin case study through integrated mathematical and cartographical tools based on Water Footprint qualitative checking. It will be integrated a proposed 'Urban Water Footprint' (immovable consumption goods) from the methodology by McCORMACK et al., (2007) and qualitative issues from ARROJO (2006) insights will be inserted. Cartography based on Sankey diagrams and ecosystem modeling from Odum´s models will be presented using an algorithmic design tool in order to show complex data in a more understandable way.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It will be presented an advance of the main results of applying that experimental indicator in order to discuss the mutual care between waters and citizenship in Brazil from analytical data and disciplinary tools. (5) amniotic liquid, sub aquatic immersion, skin permeability, body humors; (6) aqueous humor, radiestesy.

In the discussion encouraged, the wider trend expected from the research results relies on practical reflections on the Water Footprint indicator. The Spanish research group, mentioned below, reflects on it through an 'Extended Water Footprint' referring to an integration of hydrological and economic calculations showing a more objective and transparent sight, reflecting on the "hydromith" of global water scarcity and the lacks of Falkenmark Index suffering from a "lack of complexity and sophistication" (LLAMAS et al., 2009). The most important aspect revealed from the point of view of the management of a scarce resource, was that most part of water uses produces crops with very low economic value, high irrigation demand and that represents one of the biggest causes for diffuse contamination. The lack of qualitative calculations links to the following issues related to politics and ecological insights (TOLOSA, 2009): (a) water scarcity is a new myth when we talk about ecosystem dynamics, (b) promoting international trade means rising energetic and ecological footprint, (c) the change of the price in basic foods causes hunger troubles in areas where governments speculate with traded crops (Mexico case).

Moving our sight to complementary fields can widen research on urban waters, as we know about archetypical waters as universal contentless forms that channel experiences and emotions (JUNG, 1981) or issues like the ethical imperative about sustainability in the professional and citizen water management practices (ARROJO, 2006). One of the points of interest relays on the instrumentalization of the conditions of homeostasis (CANNON, 1963) and the conditions needed for the autopoiesis (VARELA et al., 2004) issues? Probably this will have to be answered in deep collaboration with researchers from biochemistry, psychiatry and somatic psychology.

CONCLUSIONS

Including qualitative issues into urban water management would shift that research and praxis towards key social, political matters. From the previous reflections, we could accept there is a need for a paradigm shifting, involving compulsorily urban waters management. We have to remember that from the last 80's, city's care lives between two referential frameworks: one based on the evolution as innovation from necessity and misery (Darwinian, Neo-Malthusian) and other based on innovation from the prime of society (Marxist). Disenchantment and decline of cities and sustainability disarray demand pointing efforts to renew approximations towards urban reality. Due to accelerated changes, uncertainty leaves ironically obsolete any aim to give sense to reality before it is practiced and is effective. So the standardized determination of people occupied with the city's care (city planner and architect profession), with its transmission (teaching) and its improvement (research) has an unbalanced theoretical framework of reference.

Expected praxis-oriented reflection on Water Footprint indicator can reveal that there are significant deficiencies within the concept of virtual-water meaning that there is a significant risk in relying on these measures to guide policy conclusions. The recent pioneer inclusion of this concept (using the similar term huella hidrológica -2011-Tolosa-Paper-2011-06-30.doc

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: On the left, map showing USA Blue water footprint, showing the impact of USA consumption habits on world superficial freshwater and groundwater resources; on the right, virtual-water balance of The Netherlands related to crop trade. Data for the period 1997-2001. Source: Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008.

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: Erosion risk compound maps at Riberão das Anhumas microbasin. Source: Anhumas Project.

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: Thinking-acting model showing the reflective, phenomenological shift.

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Figure 4 :

 4 Figure 4: From left to right, Sankey diagrams of Colorado basin water use, Odum´s system modeling and interface for an algorithmic design by Grasshopper ® .

Figure 5 :

 5 Figure 5: Types of waters according to its phenomenological reconnaissance and analogies with homeostasis, where black circles represent the waters and white circles the human being: (A) inside the human body, (B) outer, discreet and visible, and (C) surround, diffuse and hidden.

Figure 6 :

 6 Figure 6: Thinking-acting model showing the waters cycle and its mutual processes among types.

•

  JUNG, C.G. (1981) The archetypes and the collective unconscious. Princeton: Princeton University Press.• KOSICE, G. (1972) La ciudad hidroespacial. Buenos Aires: Anzilotti. • LLAMAS, M.R.; ALDAYA, M.M.; GARRIDO, A.; LÓPEZ-GUN, E. (2009) Soluciones para la escasez de agua en España y su aplicación a otras regiones. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Vol. 103, Nº. 1, pp 41-54. • McCORMACK, M.; TREOLAR, G.; PALMOWSKI, L.; CRAWFORD, R. (2007) Modelling direct and indirect water requirements of construction. Building Research & Information. ISSN 0961-3218 print. ISSN 1466-4321, Taylor & Francis. • RUTKOWSKI, E. (1999) Desenhando a bacia ambiental. Subsídios para o planejamento das águas doces metropolitan(izad)as. PhD thesis. São Paulo: EDUSP. • SANTOS, M. (2006) A natureza do espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção. São Paulo: EDUSP. • TOLOSA, M.N. (2009) Huella hídrica. Temas de sostenibilidad urbana. Madrid: Biblioteca CF+S, http://habitat.aq.upm.es/temas/a-huella-hidrica.html • VARELA, F.; MATURANA, H. (2004) De máquinas y seres vivos. Autopoiesis: la organización de lo vivo. Buenos Aires: Luman Humanitas. • VAN OEL, P.R.; KROL, M.S.; HOEKSTRA, A.Y. (2007) A river basin as a common-pool resource: a case study for the Jaguaribe basin in Brazil. Delft: UNESCO-IHE, Value of Water Research Report Series. • VARGAS LLOSA, M. (2002) La utopía del agua corriente. Madrid: Letras Libres e-magazine, http://www.letraslibres.com/index.php?art=7538 05-WWW-YES

  for urban waters policies. Would it be possible that those different qualities affect the elemental homeostatic processes, as in the basic biochemical equation C

	11th World Wide Workshop for Young Environmental Scientists WWW-YES 2011: Urban waters:
	resource or risks? (6-10 June 2011)
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6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 → 6 CO 2 + 6 H 2 O + e ? Do exist different glucose types according to its different water molecules and do we produce in our bodies watery fluids different in quality? And how this fact would affect health, cognition and evolutionary

  -hydrological footprint-) into the National Hydrological Planning in Spain through an Instruction published on the Official State Gazette (Ministerial Order ARM/2656/2008, 10 th September), from the work of the Spanish Water Footprint research group coordinated by Observatorio del Agua at Fundación Marcelino Botín, rises the interest of this kind of applied research. The necessary mutual care between waters and citizenship resumes with the autopoietic tasks that waters do taking care of our health. So instead of asking ourselves whether urban waters have to be exploited (as a resource) or dominated (as a potential risk), we could think-act: what kind of knowledge and urban Politics do we carefully practice to persist in that pristine, wealthy reciprocity? This and previous questions are and must be open conclusions being put into action. El reto ético de la nueva cultura del agua: funciones, valores y derechos en juego. Barcelona: Paidós. • BACHELARD, G. (1978) El agua y los sueños. Un ensayo sobre la imaginación de la materia. Cities in evolution. New and revised edition. London: Barnes and Nobles. • HOEKSTRA, A.Y.; CHAPAGAIN, A.K. (2008) Globalization of water: Sharing the planet´s freshwater resources. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. • ILLICH, I. (1989) H 2 O y las aguas del olvido. Madrid: Cátedra.

	REFERENCES • ALLAN, J.A. (1998) Watersheds and problemsheds: explaining the absence of armed conflict over water in the Middle East. London : Middle East Review of International Affairs, 2 (1): 49-51. • ARROJO, P. (2006) México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. • COSTA, M.C.; TORRES, R.B.; DIAS, C.C.; CARPI Jr., S.; SCALEANTE, O.A.F. (2006) Poder público e comunidade: uma aliança possível para resolver problemas de meio ambiente? Um estudo de caso na bacia do ribeirão das Anhumas, Campinas, SP. São Paulo: Revista Brasileira de Gestão e Desenvolvimento Regional, vol. 2 (3), pp. 128-152. • FALKENMARK, M. (2003) Freshwater as shared between society and ecosystems: from divided approaches to integrated challenges. London: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences 358(1440): 2037-49. • GEDDES, P. (1959) Urban Hydro-Sociology: analysis of the mutual care between waters and citizenship in Brazil -TOLOSA & PINTO
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11th World Wide Workshop for Young Environmental Scientists WWW-YES 2011: Urban waters:resource or risks? 6-10 June 2011


Mathilde Soyer Leesu
email: mathilde.soyer@leesu.enpc.fr

Improvement in urban storm water management: analysing the innovation process through the three observatories of urban hydrology in France

Keywords: Storm water management, observatories, innovation, urban hydrology, local

My thesis in sociology takes place in a big research program studying contaminated storm water in urban areas in order to develop new processes to cope with pollution. Most of the researchers of the program are biologists, chemists, hydrologists. The study also conveys sociology insisting on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. Why would a sociologist be needed to help understand a topic such as water pollution, which seems to be a really technical issue? In fact, I am looking to "study my colleagues who study chemicals", and the contribution of their discoveries.

Because innovation isn't just about technical inventions. It's a political and social question too. How can a sociologist be part of such a project? What are his/her particular methods? These are important questions, as more and more scientific programs, especially regarding environmental issues, aim to associate hard sciences and social sciences.

INTRODUCTION

For decades, cities have to face new environmental problems linked with increasing urbanization that have sometimes developed without being enough controlled or planed. Water management is a good example: inefficient water networks in the city (regarding waste water as well as storm water) can lead to great damages such as floods and environmental pollutions. Storm water management in particular is a growing concern, as researches have been realising since the seventies that storm water were highly contributed to environmental pollutions -in lakes, rivers, sheets… Authorities need more data and analysis to cope with these new environmental risks, which are deeply linked to human activities. That's why new orientations of public policies go with a huge development of monitoring programs in many fields, environmental but also economical or social ones.

In France, only three large towns for the moment have developed specific organisations dedicated to the monitoring of impacts of urban waters on environment, called "observatories in urban hydrology". These are special places for researchers and managers to share their needs and work on solutions. At first glance, these organisations appear to be more the results of an initiative coming from scientists rather than a governmental concern, but it does involve local authorities too.

The study I'm conducting is part of a research program called "Innovations for sustainable water management in urban areas", initiated by the three observatories. It aims at improving knowledge and control of storm water pollution in order to protect environment. This common program is also an opportunity to study the innovation process toward storm water management in the observatories by conveying a sociological approach. I'm in charge of this aspect. This project, which associates social sciences to hard sciences in the same research program, reveals a current trend: people tend more and more to include humanities to the analysis of technical aspects. In fact, environmental issues are so complex that traditional technical approaches are not sufficient to understand the whole problem. For example, reducing pollution is not just about improving WWTP or setting up new tools to cope with pollution. Reducing pollution also means to change people practices, to create some lows to push firms and public services to do their best to avoid damaging the environment… This paper will first introduce the context of the study: main subject, sites and objectives of the research. It will then present the methods used to produce results, focusing especially on the "proof" in social sciences. At last, we will show how first results, confronted to theoretical concepts, can be turned into research hypothesis and lead to a new core question.

Subject, sites and objectives of the study

A starting point: defining "innovation" in link with the topic

To start my researches, I had to define what can mean innovation in political sciences. Most of time, innovation in social sciences is studied by economists who mainly focus on technological inventions. Innovation is usually linked to the development of a new product on the market of goods and services or to the improvement of methods of production. Changes affect most of time material, human resources and ways of working1 . Such innovations generally come out from scientific inventions, initiated in private or public research units.

In this way, we have first to consider innovation has a "process". An invention remains an "invention" if it is not used, if it does not impact organization's running, making-decision processes or people's behaviours. An invention needs users to become an innovation. That's why innovation is a political and social phenomenon, as much as a technological one. Economical definitions are not so satisfying if we consider the public management field and the environmental questions, such as storm water management. First, innovations produced in these areas do not aim at being more competitive on the market. Secondly, these analyses tend to deny or at least lower the social and political aspects surrounding innovation, whereas these elements are very important when we study public policies.

So I preferred to start the survey with a wider definition of innovation. I found it among anthropologist's studies, which tend to define innovation as a "complete social fact". It means innovation reflects the whole society: its believes, its systems, its cultural changes, its social and political opportunities… For example, an anthropologist, Pierre Gouletquer, shows how the new activity of extracting salt from mud appeared as the result of deep evolutions: "Invention here is not the birth of a new technique that makes possible extracting salt from mud. The invention, so as to say, results in the political and economical restructuration that leads to take a commercial advantage of a potential neglected so far. (…) In other words, the "innovation potential" can't be analysed only through a technical process separated from the context. Drivers of changes consist in a redistribution of powers and a new structure of territories in the area, technical inventions and diffusions of new materials becoming indeed minor aspects." (Flichy, 1995).

Regarding the study I'm conducting, the goal is not to neglect or reduce the importance of technological improvement, but to look at innovation from a more global point of view. That's why a political scientist is needed: to go far beyond technical dimensions and analyse innovation through a "global sociology of changes" (Hassenteufel, 2008).

Studying innovation requires focusing on:

• Political and social context • Technical possibilities • People involved in the process and coalitions between main groups willing to change things.

Topic and sites

The main focuses of my study are the 3 Observatories of Urban Hydrology existing in France: OPUR from Paris (94), OTHU from Lyon (99) and ONEVU from Nantes (2006). OPUR, OTHU and ONEVU work mostly on the same topic: they analyse the whole water cycle, from the atmosphere to the ground including the in-between steps as network, flows, streaming… Researches mainly focus on pollutants in urban areas and their impact on the environment.

An observatory of urban hydrology can be defined through four main features, which can be seen in each structure:

• Real testing sites are tool up by researchers and managed by researchers and technicians of local services • Experimentations and programs are partially fund by local authorities • Research programmes are designed by both researchers and local authorities • Collaborations between partners are mid-term or long-term ones In addition, the three observatories work on urban and suburban areas, in catchment areas of different sizes.

The observatories are a tool to improve relations between local authorities and researchers. It is supposed to favour communication between the two and help to link scientific questions to management issues.

From this point of view, the observatories are in it-selves a way to favour innovation. Indeed, I have to analyse innovation through these dedicated structures.

Nevertheless, even if there is a lot of communication between researchers coming from each area, each observatory has developed its own research programmes, local concerns, methods... They work mainly on the same topics, but there are differences between the three, which can be sum up in the following categories:

• Target of researches: the structures differ on the specific area of researches (some take into account the impact of polluted water on the environment -rivers, sea… other just look at pollution into the water network and mainly focus on pollution in the city, etc.) • Sites they set up their experimentations: some sites are chosen regarding their hydrologist conditions, other because it is especially at stake for local authorities… • Goal of researches: some teams prefer developing studies with very concrete outcomes, other tend to be closer to basic research… • Research programs, which are more or less negotiated with local authorities: some studies are exclusively defined by researchers whereas other researchers make a great deal about listening carefully to the public services needs… • Practices and materials: they use different types of pluviometers or radars, have different sampling options, results certification… • Age of the structures • Size and means • Social and political context: some structures are very praised and supported by elected representatives; others suffer from a lack of recognition. In addition, some areas are really willing to fund research programs, for others, it is not a prior concern, so they are not that involved.

So I have to analyse the innovation process according to each observatory and each territory. In this way, I will have to identify global paths and mechanisms favouring innovation, but also local dynamics, related to context, history and people coming from each place.

Objectives of the study

Actually, my work aims at two kinds of objectives:

• To produce some original knowledge about innovation in urban hydrology (this goal is linked to "pure sciences" objective) • To show how the scale (national or local) of public policies and local context can impact on the innovation process: are drivers very different in Lyon or Paris? Do different place produce very different innovation policies? • To favour innovation in these three places (Lyon, Nantes and Paris), thanks to the expertise produced through my PHD's. Identifying "the drivers of innovation" may boost changes.

The third objective is more related to a concrete application of knowledge. This kind of PHD's, which is oriented toward action, is called "research-action". It implies special methods and positioning of the researcher that I will develop later on in the methodological part.

In other words, I can describe my mission this way:

• To do a socio-history of collaborations between researchers and local authorities (engineers from public services, technicians, representative elected…) in order to understand the paths leading to the birth of the observatories ; • To discover, in this history, the main factors leading to changes in storm water management ; • Thanks to these current elements, to be able to propose some scenarios for changes likely to happening in the future toward innovation policies.

The scheme below sums-up the starting project:

Research program objectives

Collaborations between reaserachers and local services (ingeneers and techniciens of water services, elected representative…)

Elements analyzed, for 20-30 years :

Local context and global framework

Background for 20-30 years :

Caracteristics of Urban territories

Social and political context ?

Collaborations in observatories

Who ? How ? What for ? Means ? Results ?

Changes in Laws

European, French, local laws or rules ?

Impact

(changes among urban services)

A wider objective : a whole « sociology of changing » Fig. 1: A very qualitative approach requiring to construct "objectivity"

A mainly qualitative approach based on interviews and analysis of archives and current documents

So far, I intended to reconstruct the birth of collaborations between researchers and public services, since, as I previously mentioned, innovation appears when an invention comes out a laboratory to be used (in this case, when it is adopted by technicians in water management services). In this way, communication and collaborations between both sides is a main element.

To reconstruct the "immediate history" of collaborations, I have two main "materials":

• Interviews with relevant people considering the topic: researchers that initiated the first collaborations at national scale but also at local scales (in Paris, Lyon and Nantes) but also civil servants from local public services, elected representatives of these different areas… • Archives: relevant documents for the observatories (meetings report, partnership conventions, activity reports…) and institutional documents showing Paris, Lyon and Nantes' evolution (social context, evolutions of public services, major political changes, evolutions of budgets, birth of new services, organisation charts…)

Featuring immediate history is a real challenge. Indeed, in that time, all papers were not archived, and pretty much nothing was saved in computers. That means it is really difficult to find tracks of these collaborations through official or formal documents. Of course, there are some papers left, but sometimes you have to do without a "material proof".

That's why interviews are so important: this is often the only memory left. But this raises another problem: people testimonies can't be vague. People are asked to talk about events that occurred 20 or 30 years ago, they have sometimes difficulties to remember exactly the dates, name of institutions or supervisor, the exact list of persons involved in such research programs…. This has two consequences:

• This method enables the researcher to get to the "spirit of collaborations", the "global sense of the recent history", but with few details ; • The researchers has conduct a quite important number of interviews, in order to confront the different stories and to validate the information's (it's usually the case in social sciences, but this precaution is even more necessary here).

In this way, we also confront the researchers' vision and the engineers or technicians from public service's ones. Both categories are being asked the same questions about the way they collaborate, their visions of problems and of solutions.

This is very useful because the gap between their approaches teaches us a lot about the difficulties of collaborations: misunderstanding, biased representations of each others… Interviews of researchers have been accomplished; it will be confronted to engineers and public services supervisors' speech in the following months.

From "subjectivity" to "objectivity"

When they are interviewed, the way people pictured themselves, their actions, their role, their responsibilities, their successes or failures reflects their subjectivities. But in human sciences, it is not an insurmountable problem, in spite of what one may think. Indeed, there is many ways to go over this difficulty and consider these testimonies as real research materials.

1. Considering that people "representations" or visions are more important than the "objective truth" that does not exist in itself.

The main paradigm in sociology is that "the facts are constructed by people". Truth does not exist in itself, "social classes", "gender differences", "better solutions", "prior concern" do not exist in it selves, they are not a "natural phenomenon". People in society create, by their believes and behaviours, "social categories", "problems to solve", "differences between men and women", "political priorities"… In this way, researchers in social sciences have to study people's visions, believes, preferences, understanding of reality to understand why they act the way they do, why they fight for this cause instead of another one… The only way to understand these social facts is to listen to people, and to analyze their visions. Taking into account each one's subjectivity is the only mean to explain social facts.

Looking for other proofs

Of course, researchers try to confirm what he has been told with other proofs. In this way, we can set up others indicators, when it is possible. For example, some people I interviewed tend to say that observatories are quite close to local authorities. I tried to confirm this hypothesis through others evidences: we can't try to check the number of meetings per year (do they meet 2 times, 5 times, 10 times a year…), to study the list of participants, to look for events organized by both parts or involving the two institutions.... Do reserchers and technicians from public services produce together technical advices through scientific articles or institutional communications? We try be as much creative as we can to constructs indicators or proofs.

"Deconstructing subjectivity"

Deconstructing subjectivity means "understanding why someone thinks or acts the way he does".

In other words, we try to explain by some social determinants people's behaviours. In fact, something looking, at first glance, very "personal" can be then viewed as a social fact. From this point of view, a subjective feature can become a more "objective" one. For example, interviews show that researchers tend to be all very sensitive to a "useful science". It means they really want their inventions to change people practices. At the same time, we note that nearly all of them are engineers by training. So, we can think (it's an hypothesis) that their education made them sensitive to practical aspects. What appeared first as a "personal preference" can be more than a subjective taste and become, if a great number of testimonies agree, an "social fact" more objective. It means we don't take it for granted with a naïve look, we always answer ourselves: why would he/ she say that? Why would he/ she present things this way? Why would he/she insist on this aspect? Listening to the observatories leaders, I know that, even if they tend to be sincere when they answer my questions, they also want to valorise their institutions and can't tell everything because of their institutional responsibilities. So I received it with quite distance.

"Confronting subjectivities"

We confront as much as we can testimonies. People with the same profile and being part of the same organization (researchers, technicians, leaders…) have been asked the very same questions, in order to compare their versions. It means, we don't stop asking questions as soon as someone gave us the information. As in journalism, comparing the same information coming from different sources is a basic method. Except we go far beyond journalism in the number of sources and the accuracy of testimonies. We consider that a piece of information validated by many people is likely to be accurate and can be viewed as a fact or a result.

Positioning myself in a research action

A research-action aims at producing two kind of knowledge: "knowledge in itself", as for a typical research, but also knowledge "to change the reality being observed and analysed". The research is supposed to not only look at changes, but also contribute to create them. Because questioning people, looking at what they do, giving them a vision of their activity indirectly help them to think about their positions and actions, and can make them change.

This can be difficult, because it questions traditional positioning of researchers in two ways. First, the social scientist has usually to take some distance from the subject he is studying. This distance is needed if he wants to construct his own analysis, instead of reproducing interviewed people's speech or superficial opinions we all carry out. Here, I have to be close to my subject (in a way, I study my colleagues…) if I want them to be involved in the study; Meanwhile, I have to do a real scientific work. This is difficult to manage because I have to go back and forth from "research" to "action".

Secondly, a researcher usually makes its study in a quite lonely way. He is led by his PhD's supervisors, but he does not really share his work outside this small group until it is done. In the case of research action, first results are often discussed among the large group which is part of the study. In my case, I often talk about my hypothesis or first results with researchers of the observatories. This is part of the game, because these elements are supposed to create debates, to make people talk until they agree on the same vision, etc. It can be awkward too because my work is judged by people I studied, I have to take into account their opinions and sometimes their quite strong criticism, without being too motioned or influenced. Because some hypothesis or first results are worth it and deserve to be followed, even if people disagree with my analysis or proposals.

Theoretical readings help a lot to face these obstacles: it gives some distance and enable the researcher to develop a scientific vision thanks to concepts.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Indeed, realizing about 10 interviews and confronting them to science political concepts led to some first results, new hypothesis and a more precise definition of the core problem.

Doing a socio-history of the collaborations leads to inquire into the construction of the French scientific community of urban hydrology

The French urban hydrology group is actually a small but very connected community. In the early 80's, researchers and engineers coming from different local services and laboratories work started to work together on wide national programmes lead by the government services. The teams involved joined the programme on a very informal way. Researchers coming from all over France came to "work together, talk and share points of views", according to the former leaders of the project, when they are asked to tell the story. When we consider it, this was the beginning of some friendships or at least some good professional relationships. Indeed, the first teams implicated in such national programs were then willing to keep these collaborations going. They continue to develop contacts, share data and analysis. There were a lot of exchanges, in many ways: some professionals of Lyon came to teach in Paris, some researchers of Montpellier were supervising Paris's PhD's students… These links were institutionalised in 1988 with the birth of Eurydice, an association created, according to its founding fathers, to shape "common knowledge and patterns in urban hydrology". This association gathered researchers, engineers working in water public services, local councillors, members of consulting firms… Gathering professionals coming from different fields enable them to spread a common vision about problems in urban hydrology and relevant innovations in many places. The association also reflects their will to associate operational needs to academic circles.

In fact, my hypothesis, so far, is that the birth of the observatories is indeed just one more step to reinforce the informal network born in the 70's. The post-68 social and political context (a lot of freedom and a quite important public budget) favoured an informal association. Since the end of the 90's, because of the changes among the French research field (a lack of funding that pushes the structures to be more visible), this network has to be institutionalised in another way. This hypothesis is influenced by two concepts: the "path dependency" (P. Pierson, 2000) and the "policy window" (J. Kingdom, 1995).

The "path dependency" theory suggests that all current situations find its roots in the past. For people who defend that idea, change is deeply dependant on history. New situations do not come from nowhere, changes are never radical. Here, the observatories exist because this informal network has been living for a long time before. It is not an ad hoc creation.

Collaborations between researchers and local authorities are linked to institutions and political will, but most of all it seems to rely on the "profile" of people

In fact, one element helped a lot to set up collaborations: the "professional bridges" between academic circles and management services. In fact, it is striking to see the number of people who had worked in both fields: starting as a researcher to become then a technician or a manager in public services, or the contrary. It is not rare to meet someone who was first a PHD's student in Lyon, went then to make some researches in Paris, to end up being in charge of the Water Parisian Department for local authorities, for example. This kind of career helps local public services and Scientifics to develop tights links. In fact, people who know culture, concerns and expectations of the two institutions can increase awareness about the advantages of collaborations for both parts. In fact, main difficulty in collaborations is that people don't share the same interests neither than the same "language" to express their projects. That's why "multipositioned" people are so helpful. They can "traduce", "decode" (Faure, 2006) the concerns of both side, and develop a "common ground".

The importance of "political appropriation"

Political support appears to be essential to understand the success (or the difficulties) of collaborations in different territories. Lyon, where is born OTHU, is a good example. Indeed, the city is really implicated in funding researches since the beginning of the scientific community in the seventies. Both researchers and public engineers have developed a trustful partnership, based on many successes, partly economical ones. The modelling developed by scientists enabled, at a very low price, engineers of the "Grand Lyon" to optimise their technical choices while urbanising new areas. Indeed, they realise quickly that associating researchers in the makingdecision process -research units was somehow perceived as more efficient and "insightful" than consulting firms -made them saving money. That's how they continue to work with to the local scientific community of urban hydrology.

But another element was really helpful: local government used these successful collaborations as a way to promote the city. Civil servants were actually very proud of their innovation ability, at least partly due to the researchers' expertise. So mayors in Lyon, since the seventies, whatever their political belonging, have developed a very praising speech presenting Lyon (and its surrounding areas) as "a very advanced city". This was part of their "urban governance style" (Faure, 2007). Politicians being so involved favour a long term partnership.

CONCLUSIONS

First results enabled me to precise the core problem of my research, and the factors I had to deeply analyse. At the very beginning of my study, I was able to draw a quite easy schema (presented in the first part) to define what was at stake. But these great categories were mostly "black boxes", what was inside remained undefined. I can now precise some elements, even if these definitions are likely to change in the following months.

In addition, first results helped me reformulating what can be "innovation in storm water policies", leading to some core question to test during the coming campaign of interviews among public services (once I'm done with researchers interview): May innovation in storm water management be characterised by an evolution to a more integrated vision of water, water being not anymore managed apart, but taking into account in the city planning?

The scheme below represents the new formulation of the research:

Cf. Le manuel d'Oslo de l'Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economique

11thWWW YES, Arcueil, France, 6 -10 June 2011 SOYER

Research program core problem

Collaborations between reaserachers and local services (ingeneers and techniciens of water services, elected representative…)

Elements analyzed, for 20-30 years :

Local context and global framework

Background for 20-30 years : 2004), « De la portée des récits de vie dans l'analyse des processus globaux », Bulletin de méthodologie sociologique. -2011-Soyer-Paper-2011-04-07.doc

Caracteristics of Urban territories

Cities empowerment Political speech praising innovation

Changes in Laws

06-WWW-YES