Global water crises are, finally, near the top of the agendas at the United Nations and at multilateral initiatives and organizations. A social sciences– and humanities-informed emerging literature that we call Heterodox Thinking offers alternatives to much of the current decision-making on water. Rooted in water economics, values, and governance, Heterodox Thinking comprises developments in nonmarket valuation, systems thinking, risk assessments and mitigation, infrastructure investments, and understanding injustices and relationality. It is characterized by the Three Ps: People (e.g., who has voice and power and who does not), Place (e.g., locally informed and justice-based), and Planet (e.g., system interconnections, risks, and ecological and nonhuman considerations). At its best, Heterodox Thinking is informed by on-the-ground evidence and multiple disciplines and knowledge, and it seeks to value water, expose power imbalances, support human rights and well-being, and mitigate systemic risks. If effectively operationalized, it can deliver more equitable, risk-mitigated, and sustainable responses to the many different and localized water crises.
By R. Quentin Grafton, Edoardo Borgomeo, Long Chu, Peter Coombes, Safa Fanaian, Darla Hatton MacDonald, Pamela Katic, Sheri Longboat, Ana Manero, William Nikolakis, Jesper Svensson, Sarah Ann Wheeler, Paul Wyrwoll, Wiktor Adamowicz, Sonia Akter, Asit Biswas, Roy Brouwer, Luc Doyen, James Horne, Tom Kompas, Lien Le, Rita Martins, Sarah Milne, Nhat-Mai Nguyen, Claudia Ringler, Julia Talbot-Jones, Djiby Thiam, Cecilia Tortajada and John Williams, Volume 51, Number 1, pages 279-304. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-environ-112624-021419