PhD Position: Groundwater Care Politics of Transformation; Peru

The PhD study is part of a larger project funded by an ERC Advanced Grant: “Aquiverse: a collaborative study of groundwater care to re-think, improve and support its governance”. The project aspires to learn from what irrigators and other water users do to protect and share the aquifers that they depend on for their livelihoods. Acknowledging how the over-exploitation of aquifers is linked to neo-liberal processes of agricultural intensification, the project is interested in exploring whether such caring practices can form part of a politics of transformation.

The project engages in collaborative studies of six organized initiatives of caring for aquifers – of recharge, conservation, recovery - in three countries (India, Peru and Morocco). How do these initiatives shape people’s connections with aquifers and with each other, and how do they (re-)configure possibilities for living and relating? The Peru cases centre around so-called pozas used for aquifer recharge on the desert coast and on the revival of traditional rainwater harvesting techniques in the high Andes mountains.

Connecting thick empirical description with methodological-theoretical engagement, the project aims to contribute to (among others) reflections on transformational politics, human-environment interactions and collective action (or communing). A central notion in the project is “aquiverse” – a combination of the words ‘aquifer’ and ‘pluriverse’ – . It denotes both a novel transdisciplinary understanding of groundwater and a new method to compare groundwater governance across cases.

The PhD project will have to be completed in 4 years. You will work closely with your supervisors, including Margreet Zwarteveen, as well as with the rest of the Aquiverse research team which includes another PhD fellow and 2 postdoctoral researchers (Carolina Dominguez-Guzman and Lisa Bossenbroek).

As part of your PhD project, you are expected to engage in two or more of the following activities:

• a detailed ethnographic description of the everyday practices of people involved in the selected initiatives of caring for groundwater.
• A precise institutional and hydro-geological documentation and assessment of the functioning and performance of these initiatives.
• An in-depth historical and political-ecological analysis of how the depletion of groundwater is related to neo-liberal processes of water-based agrarian change and the politics of water (re-)allocation.
• An identification, documentation and analysis of how irrigators navigate pressures – to individualize, intensify or indeed over-exploit – in the study sites.

You are someone who:

• Has a (research) master’s degree in human Geography, Development Studies, Anthropology, or a closely related field.
• Is interested in (the role of water in) processes of agrarian change.
• Would like to contribute to (feminist) theorizations of human/society-environment relations (political ecology, environmental humanities).
• Has some familiarity with agrarian Peru and looks forward to spending time in remote rural areas.
• Has experience with ethnographic research methods but is not afraid of quantification.
• Has some understanding of or is curious to learn about hydrogeology.
• Enjoys engaging in inter-and transdisciplinary collaborations.
• Possesses excellent academic writing and communication skills in English
• Can communicate well in Spanish and preferably also in Quechua. Some knowledge of French, Arabic (Darija) or Hindi is an advantage.
• Cares for their colleagues and collaborators.
• Likes experimenting with creative methods of research and engagement.

We offer a temporary employment contract of 38 hours per week for a maximum term…