[PDF] H2o And The Waters Of Forgetfulness eBook

Author : Jamie Linton
Publisher : UBC Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 39,42 MB
Release : 2010-07-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 0774817038

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We all know what water is, and we often take it for granted. But the spectre of a worldwide water crisis suggests that there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way we think about water. Jamie Linton dives into the history of water as an abstract concept, stripped of its environmental, social, and cultural contexts. Reduced to a scientific abstraction – to mere H20 – this concept has given modern society licence to dam, divert, and manipulate water with apparent impunity. Part of the solution to the water crisis involves reinvesting water with social content, thus altering the way we see water. An original take on a deceptively complex issue, What Is Water? offers a fresh approach to a fundamental problem.

Author : Radhika Mohanram
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 13,57 MB
Release :
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ISBN : 1452913358

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Radhika Mohanram shows not just how British imperial culture shaped the colonies, but how the imperial rule of colonies shifted—and gave new meanings to—what it meant to be British. Imperial White looks at literary, social, and cultural texts on the racialization of the British body and investigates British whiteness in the colonies to address such questions as: How was the whiteness in Britishness constructed by the presence of Empire? How was whiteness incorporated into the idea of masculinity? Does heterosexuality have a color? And does domestic race differ from colonial race? In addition to these inquiries on the issues of race, class, and sexuality, Mohanram effectively applies the methods of whiteness studies to British imperial material culture to critically racialize the relationship between the metropole and the peripheral colonies. Considering whether whiteness, like theory, can travel, Mohanram also provides a new perspective on white diaspora, a phenomenon of the nineteenth century that has been largely absent in diaspora studies, ultimately rereading—and rethinking—British imperial whiteness. Radhika Mohanram teaches postcolonial cultural studies in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University, Wales. She is the author of Black Body: Women, Colonialism, Space (Minnesota, 1999) and edits the journal Social Semiotics.

Author : Anjal Prakash
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 1428 pages
File Size : 37,66 MB
Release : 2022-05-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1317341961

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This cluster of books presents innovative and nuanced knowledge on water resources, based on detailed case studies from South Asia—India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In providing comprehensive analyses of the existing economic, demographic and ideological contexts in which water policies are framed and implemented, the volumes argue for alternative, informed and integrated approaches towards efficient management and equitable distribution of water. These also explore the globalization of water governance in the region, particularly in relation to new paradigms of neoliberalism, civil society participation, integrated water resource management (IWRM), public–private partnerships, privatization, and gender mainstreaming. These volumes will be indispensable for scholars and students of development studies, environmental studies, natural resource management, governance and public administration, particularly those working on water resources in South Asia. They will also be useful for policymakers and governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Author : Christy Spackman
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 39,74 MB
Release : 2023-12-05
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0520393562

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Have you ever wondered why your tap water tastes the way it does? The Taste of Water explores the increasing erasure of tastes from drinking water over the twentieth century. It asks how dramatic changes in municipal water treatment have altered consumers’ awareness of the environment their water comes from. Through examining the development of sensory expertise in the United States and France, this unique history uncovers the foundational role of palatability in shaping Western water treatment processes. By focusing on the relationship between taste and the environment, Christy Spackman shows how efforts to erase unwanted tastes and smells have transformed water into a highly industrialized food product divorced from its origins. The Taste of Water invites readers to question their own assumptions about what water does and should naturally taste like while exposing them to the invisible—but substantial—sensory labor involved in creating tap water.

Author : Cecilia Chen
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 510 pages
File Size : 39,25 MB
Release : 2013-10-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0773589341

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Emphasizing the role that vivid personalities – including engineers John Laing Weller and Alex Grant as well as contractors and labourers – played in the construction of the canal, Roberta Styran and Robert Taylor use archival sources, government documents, newspapers, maps, and original plans to describe a saga of technological, financial, geographical, and social obstacles met and overcome in an accomplishment akin to the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A story of Canadian skill, courage, vision, and hardship, This Colossal Project details the twenty-year excavation of the giant channel and the creation of huge concrete locks amidst war, the Great Depression, political change, and labour unrest.

Author : Veronica Strang
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 32,59 MB
Release : 2023-04-19
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1789147506

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Looking to the vast human history of water worship, a crucial study of our broken relationship with all things aquatic—and how we might mend it. Early human relationships with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities: rainbow-colored, feathered or horned serpents, giant anacondas, and dragons. Representing the powers of water, these beings were bringers of life and sustenance, world creators, ancestors, guardian spirits, and lawmakers. Worshipped and appeased, they embodied people’s respect for water and its vital role in sustaining all living things. Yet today, though we still recognize that “water is life,” fresh- and saltwater ecosystems have been critically compromised by human activities. This major study of water beings and what has happened to them in different cultural and historical contexts demonstrates how and why some—but not all—societies have moved from worshipping water to wreaking havoc upon it and asks what we can do to turn the tide.

Author : Kimberley Kinder
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 46,26 MB
Release : 2015-05-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0820348368

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Fifty years ago, urban waterfronts were industrial, polluted, and diseased. Today, luxury homes and shops line riverbanks, harbors, and lakes across Europe and North America. The visual drama of physical reconstruction makes this transition look swift and decisive, but reimaging water is a slow process, punctuated by small cultural shifts and informal spatial seizures that change the meaning of wet urban spaces. In The Politics of Urban Water, Kimberley Kinder explores how active residents in Amsterdam deployed their cityscape when rallying around these concerns, turning space into a vehicle for social reform. While market dynamics certainly contributed to the transformation of Amsterdam's shorelines, squatters, partiers, artists, historians, environmentalists, tourists, reporters, and government officials also played crucial roles in bringing waterscapes to life. Their interventions pulled water in new directions, connecting it to political discussions about affordable housing, cultural tolerance, climate change, and national identity. Over time, these political valences have become embedded in laws, norms, symbols, markets, and landscapes, bringing rich undercurrents of friction to urban shores. Amsterdam's development serves as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale for cities across Europe and North America where rapid new growth creates similar pressures and anxieties.

Author : Paolo Consigli
Publisher : Watkins Media Limited
Page : 540 pages
File Size : 46,60 MB
Release : 2017-09-19
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1786781107

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There is no more important substance on earth than water: it is the source of life, one of the four classic elements and makes up over 70% of our bodies and our planet. This remarkable new book allows us to discover and understand more about this most common of molecules. Water is the most common, and also the most important substance on Earth. We are hypnotically attracted to its simplicity, purity and transparency, as well as its astonishing physical behaviour, structural vibrations and ordered flow, not to mention its amazing therapeutic virtues. Despite its prevalence, however, this astonishing molecule still harbours many mysteries. Through the ages, not only scientists but also philosophers and mystics have sought to interpret the fact that our lives are completely dependent on water. They have drawn parallels with spiritual growth: water is always ready to change, to adapt itself, to create and transform; it could be seen as nature’s guide to improving and renewing ourselves in wisdom and serenity. By going further than just describing its attributes and celebrating its physical properties, The Hidden Secrets of Water seeks to uncover and understand the true depths of this most enigmatic of elements, taking the reader on a journey of discovery that covers the whole spectrum of water’s influence, traversing scientific, social and spiritual planes. From the Ancient Chinese concept of Yin and Yang to numerical and literary symbolism in the Torah, the Fibonacci sequence to string theory, this innovative, intelligent and far-reaching exploration seamlessly brings together modern science and ancient wisdom, technology and humanism, logic and mysticism in a way that will inspire and stimulate all.