Social Hydrology - Detailseite

This is an interdisciplinary project seminar on human-water relations, which uses a local case study in Berlin/Brandenburg as a case study (declining lake or groundwater levels, urban-rural streams like the Wuhle, Erpe, Tegeler Fliess or Panke etc.). Central to the format of the project seminar is own empirical work by the students, which can be the collection of primary data (qualitative or quantitative) but can also be on secondary data, including modelling. We begin with a field excursion in the first 2 weeks to collect impressions, interesting research questions and already talk about the history and geographical setting of the case. The idea is that we let the case guide us to genuine research questions that later will be embedded in theoretical frameworks. We can draw on the methodological skills acquired during the Masters programme and previous studies.

Upon sorting our impressions, each student will distil a research question and develop a research design for empirical research (with guidance). The possibilities range from analysing secondary quantitative data or texts to primary data collection (qualitative or quantitative) to modelling (plus potentially other methods). Methodological inputs by the teachers will be provided as needed. Then begins the project work, alongside which theoretical frameworks on human-water relations will be taught. In particular, we will cover prominent approaches such as the hydrosocial cycle, hydrosocial territorialisation and socio-hydrology. The students’ research will be discussed in light of these concepts.

After student presentations of interim results (the state of their research) begins another three weeks of independent project work where weekly plenary meetings might be shorter or skipped altogether. In the last two weeks of the semester, each student presents the state of their research one more time. The semester break is there to finish the empirical work (we will try to keep this to a minimum) and write up their work in light of the theoretical frameworks in form of a research paper. Individual papers will be shared – maybe in form of a website – so that a multi-faceted picture of the case emerges.

The course draws inspiration from the designs of the following research projects (the last three led by or involving HU):

• https://www.oregonwaterstories.com/
• https://www.cliwac.de/en/index.html
• https://www.iri-thesys.org/research/research-projects/water-security-for-whom-social-and-material-perspectives-on-inequality-around-multipurpose-reservoirs-in-colombia/
• https://umweltethnologie.com/2023/08/28/flusspunkte-entlang-der-spree/

Learning objectives

Students ...

… got to know prominent theoretical frameworks of human-water relations,

… have applied them to frame an original empirical study,

… have applied their skills to formulate a research question, design a methodology, execute this and present and write up the results in form of a scientific paper.

Lebek & Krueger (forthcoming). On the dialogue between ethnographic field work and statistical modelling. In Lane & Lave: The Field Guide of Mixed Methods Research. Open Book Publishers

Lebek & Krueger (2023). Conventional and makeshift rainwater harvesting in rural South Africa: exploring determinants for rainwater harvesting mode. International Journal of Water Resources Development 39(1): 113-132

Rusca and Di Baldassarre (2019). Interdisciplinary Critical Geographies of Water: Capturing the Mutual Shaping of Society and Hydrological Flows. Water 11(10): 1973

Lebek, Twomey & Krueger (2021). Municipal failure, unequal access and conflicts over water: A hydrosocial perspective on water insecurity of rural households in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Water Alternatives 14(1): 271-292

Linton & Budds (2014). The hydrosocial cycle: Defining and mobilizing a relational-dialectical approach to water. Geoforum 57: 170-180

Boelens, Hoogesteger, Swyngedouw, Vos & Wester (2016). Hydrosocial territories: a political ecology perspective. Water International 41(1): 1-14

Yu, Haeffner, Jeong, Pande, Dame, Di Baldassarre, Garcia-Santos, Hermans, Muneepeerakul, Nardi, Sanderson, Tian, Wei, Wessels & Sivapalan (2022). On capturing human agency and methodological interdisciplinarity in socio-hydrology research. Hydrological Sciences Journal 67(13): 1905-1916

https://www.oregonwaterstories.com/

https://www.cliwac.de/en/index.html

https://www.iri-thesys.org/research/research-projects/water-security-for-whom-social-and-material-perspectives-on-inequality-around-multipurpose-reservoirs-in-colombia/

https://umweltethnologie.com/2023/08/28/flusspunkte-entlang-der-spree/

The final exam is a project report in form of research paper.