Liberal Theory, Human Rights and Water-Justice: Back to Square One?

In the wake of the Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’: liberal theory’s triumph over its soviet/communist other,
and the subsequent march of ‘globalisation’ and the ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology, this article
interrogates the theoretical developments on the ‘Left’, the academic and activist led critiques of liberal
triumphalism, by analysing the demands for recognition of water rights as human rights particularly in
regard to the Global Justice Movements that arose from disenchantment with globalisation and
neo-liberal ideology. In the context of water-justice and human rights, the article investigates the
substantial underpinnings of both liberal theory and the languages of the ‘Left’ tradition in regard to the
development of the human right to water to reveal the shared foundations that divorce them both from the
geo-historical terrain of emancipatory politics today.

See at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2008_1/desouza/desouza.pdf

Post Date : 29 Oktober 2008