Water Ethics: An Introduction

(Hardback)

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Description

While the interdependence of the different aspects of water security and the relevance of ethical and distributive aspects is acknowledged in both policy circles and academia, a comprehensive introduction to water ethics is still missing. This book aims to fill that gap, by exploring the common thread that follows from three current interrelated debates: the allocation of water resources, the human right to water, and the commodification and privatisation of water services. These questions create a plea for alternatives to the predominantly consequentialist approach to dealing with water issues. The author explores the normative and ethical aspects of flood and water-related risks, and looks at the topic of responsibility: who should be responsible for correcting inequities, or taking remedial action in the case of pollution These and other questions to be linked to ongoing discussion in other disciplines within philosophy, such as environmental ethics, climate ethics, the ethics of technology and climate justice, making this text important across a wide range of courses for upper undergraduate and graduate students.

Reviews

Often books fall distinctly into one category or another: general readership or scholarly research. This needed introductory book, however, is successful at satisfying at least three categories: general readership, self-directed course textbook, and scholarly research/reference publication. It embodies the well-known structural features of a textbook: chapter summaries indicating what the reader should learn, summary conclusions or takeaways for each chapter, boxed text outlining issues of particular importance, a glossary of terms, and extensive notes and references for further reading. The last two satisfy requirements of a research text for scholars. Doorn (Delft Univ. of Technology) employs a writing style that minimizes technical language, rendering the text accessible to general readers and introductory students. The author's extensive background in civil engineering, philosophy, and law shows clearly as she argues diverse controversial ideas related to water uses. Among these are distributive/procedural justice, economic issues, human rights, and communitarian and intergenerational responsibility. While introducing ethical issues of water engineering design and implementation, Doorn maintains a genuine openness, empowering readers' informed disagreement. The concluding chapter identifies strategic decision-making challenges related to water management/governance from bottom-up and top-down governance approaches, well integrated with critical considerations brought forward from earlier chapters. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Author Bio

Neelke Doorn is full professor Ethics of Water Engineering at the Section Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at the Technical University Delft. Neelke's current research concentrates on moral issues in technological risk and water governance, with a special focus on how a resilience approach affects the distribution of responsibilities in risk and water governance. In 2013, she was awarded a prestigious Veni-grant for outstanding researchers from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). She was shortlisted for the engineer of the year award 2014 from the Dutch professional engineering organization (KIVI) for her work on the interface of ethics and engineering. Neelke is Editor-in-Chief of Techn: Research in Philosophy and Technology (Journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology). She has authored over 70 peer reviewed publications and is regularly invited to give public talks about topics on the interface of technology, risk, and morality.