Left, right and centre – Policy note n°6 – Emotions and Gender in Water Diplomacy
Setting the Research Agenda
Brief and commentary
The sixth article in our series “Left, Right and Centre” explores how water work and diplomacy are highly gendered: those with the most power are most often elite men. Emotions are embedded in water work, involving debating use and availability of a life-sustaining, symbolic good. Which emotions emerge in water diplomacy, to what intensity, for whom, influences behavioural – and diplomatic – outcomes. We outline opportunities and pitfalls regarding how emotions shape water diplomacy.
People around the world have symbolic, emotional, and physical relationships with water – whether for travel, spiritual practices, physical needs (e.g., drinking, sanitation, cooking), or combinations of the above. Yet this essential good is unequally distributed and deeply affected by climate change. Water is under such extreme threat that the UN has recently reframed the global water crisis as “global water bankruptcy”.
Understanding how emotions influence water policy and policy-makers - across political lines - is essential for protecting our water and reaching cross-partisan agreements.
Dive into the full analysis by downloading the document below.
