| The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest Contributor(s): Espeland, Wendy Nelson (Author) |
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ISBN: 0226217930 ISBN-13: 9780226217932 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $98.01 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 1998 Annotation: Nearly fifty years ago, the Bureau of Reclamation proposed building a dam at the confluence of two rivers in Central Arizona. While the dam would bring valuable water to this arid plain, it would also destroy a wildlife habitat, flood archaeological sites, and force the Yavapai Indians off their ancestral home. "The Struggle for Water" is not only the fascinating story of this controversial and ultimately thwarted public works project but also a study of rationality as a cultural, organizational, and political construct. In the 1970s, the three groups most intimately involved in the Orme Dam--younger Bureau of Reclamation employees committed to "rational choice" decision making, older Bureau engineers committed to the dam, and the Yavapai community--all found themselves and their values transformed by their struggles. Wendy Nelson Espeland lays bare the relations between interests and identities that emerged during the conflict, creating a contemporary tale of power and colonization, bureaucracies and democratic practice, that asks the crucial question of what it means to be "rational." |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science - Business & Economics | Real Estate - General |
| Dewey: 333.911 |
| LCCN: 98004863 |
| Series: Chicago Law and Society |
| Physical Information: 0.85" H x 6.34" W x 9.32" (1.17 lbs) 298 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Nearly fifty years ago, the Bureau of Reclamation proposed building a dam at the confluence of two rivers in Central Arizona. While the dam would bring valuable water to this arid plain, it would also destroy a wildlife habitat, flood archaeological sites, and force the Yavapai Indians off their ancestral home. The Struggle for Water is not only the fascinating story of this controversial and ultimately thwarted public works project but also a study of rationality as a cultural, organizational, and political construct. In the 1970s, the three groups most intimately involved in the Orme Dam--younger Bureau of Reclamation employees committed to rational choice decision making, older Bureau engineers committed to the dam, and the Yavapai community--all found themselves and their values transformed by their struggles. Wendy Nelson Espeland lays bare the relations between interests and identities that emerged during the conflict, creating a contemporary tale of power and colonization, bureaucracies and democratic practice, that asks the crucial question of what it means to be rational. |