Talking About Water: Water Stories from Boston in a Time of Insecurity

Abstract

This thesis explores water insecurity, or the idea of it, and examines uncertainty of water for household use both in terms of access and quality. Water is a vital resource for humans; nevertheless, it is one that is under pressure. This thesis examines perspectives on water security as gathered from research conducted in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States in fall 2018. It examines the ways in which an overheated and compressed system defines the intersection of water stories for those residing in Boston and engaging with the water system. The research suggests that water insecurity exists within what Eriksen has referred to as an overheated world and that this feeling of water insecurity increases with excessive globalization to which Eriksen (Eriksen 2016, 2013). This thesis will show that the water stories and water anxieties in Boston are not necessarily an effect of a lack of water access and water quality. People can have ample access to high quality water, enough to meet their needs but still feel anxious. It further suggests that the stories and understanding of the stressors are related to what Harvey has called “time-space compression” (Harvey 1990). This thesis thus argues that the water stories from Boston reflect an intersection of experiences wherein the overheated world and the time-space compression ultimately play out to inform understandings and interactions between the water system and people and their water use. The water stories I examine expand beyond the confines of the city of Boston. I show how mobility contextualizes the water stories people tell and how water stories from elsewhere define the experience of water in Boston. Lastly, the thesis engages concepts such as inequality and trust. Trust is not a completely simple idea as it inherently relates to issues of inequalities and inequities. People do not experience water insecurity in a similar way. It depends on where they are situated. However, relatively water secure people can still find it hard to trust a system that fails parts of the population, these failures adding to their own insecurity. As geographic and time scales clash water insecurity from elsewhere, becomes a felt experience even though from any objective standpoint individuals could be viewed as water secure.