Published In
Organization and Environment
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2013
Subjects
Water-supply -- Social aspects, Water utilities -- Privatization, Water resources development, Municipal water supply, Commodification
Abstract
Bottled water has rapidly been transformed from an elite niche market into a ubiquitous consumer object. Yet the literature on drinking water privatization has largely neglected the growth of bottled water and its emergence as a global commodity. This article draws on Harvey’s analytic of accumulation by dispossession to explore how commodification unfolds differently across multiple forms of water. Based on ethnographic interviews with participants in two conflicts over spring water extraction in rural U.S. communities by the industry leader Nestlé, we make three arguments. First, contestation over bottled water commodification is refracted through competing framings regarding control over local water that illuminate the industry’s shifting accumulation strategies. Second, conflicts over specific instances of water extraction draw on rival narratives of the purity, uniqueness, and/or mundaneness of this commodity. Third, bottled water’s traits distinguish it materially and conceptually from tap water, necessitating a more nuanced analytical approach to its commodification.
DOI
10.1177/1086026612462378
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/36307
Citation Details
Published as: Jaffee, D., & Newman, S. (2013). A Bottle Half Empty: Bottled Water, Commodification, and Contestation. Organization & Environment, 26(3), 318–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026612462378
Included in
Place and Environment Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Rural Sociology Commons
Description
This is the Accepted Manuscript (Author’s post-print) of an article published in the journal Organization and Environment. Available online: https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026612462378