Approaching from a historical-sociological perspective, the book provides an interdisciplinary investigation of the interrelationship of water and citizenship in Mexico. Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias, Marx, T.H.Marshall, and von Clausewitz, among others, the work provides an empirical study of the import of social struggle in the explanation of structural social change from pre-Columbian times to the late twentieth century. The evolution of water's manifold social character and values, as a source of power, as a public good, as a commodity, or as a universal right is examined in the light of ever changing and mutually binding social and ecological processes. The basin's rich water history becomes the vantage point to cast light on one of the most crucial challenges facing the international community: the protracted social inequalities that account for the fact that a large part of the world population is affected by preventable water-related diseases and death. Castro concludes that, in the face of the current reversal of the values of universalism, the defence and further conquest of the territory of citizenship has become a truly radical endeavour, which in this particular sphere of human activity takes the form of a struggle to eliminate water inequality and injustice.

List of Tables
List of Figures
Conventions of Transcription and Translation
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Social Character of Water
The Sociogenesis of Water Stress
Water and Power in the Basin of Mexico
Contested Waters
Water and the Evolution of Citizenship
Water and the Territory of Citizenship
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Sources
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

JOSÉ ESTEBAN CASTRO is Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University. He was previously a Senior Research Associate at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, and Lecturer in Development Studies at the Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.