Of Rurban and its Waters

Abstract

Using a qualitative approach and a case study method, this thesis advances the conceptualisation of rurban and contributes to the understanding of corresponding rurban water governance. In the context of Haldwani, a small city in the Kumaon Himalaya of Uttarakhand State in India, it is argued that a rurban space may or may not be at the immediate periphery of the urban centre, and it may or may not become urban. In this thesis rurban is conceptualised through the flows of goods, services, and resources between rural and urban. It is seen as a construct that is process-based and not an entity that is socio-organisational; it is studied through processes that lead to its creation and not as a state of being, or a way of life; as rurbanisation and not as rurbanism. In studying rurbanisation, emphasis is laid on enhanced historical sensitivity towards the economic, socio-political, and demographic foundations of rural-urban changes.

In the dynamic context of rurban, a corresponding ever-evolving water governance is established. Institutional bricolage is used as a conceptual tool to unpack the water governance in rurban Haldwani.

Rurban water governance is imbued with the agency of the users and is characterised by ‘thick’ institutions made by piecing and layering of historical, contemporary, traditional, customary, and statutory practices, norms, rules, and codes of conduct. The research captures changes in everyday practices and logics surrounding water access and use, as well as the meanings locals ascribe to the shifting spatial contexts of rural-urban interaction.

This study paves the way for future studies on rurban resource governance, with a greater acknowledgement of the role and agency of rurban residents in making of the rurban space, and in (re)creation of institutional arrangements around resource use and access.