Tapping the Turn: Water's Social Dimensions conference

The UWS Institute for Culture and Society is co-sponsor of this event.

In recent years, social scientists have imagined ‘social natures’ where the environment imbues, and is imbued by, human cultural activity. This is in contrast to the idea of water as a scientific element, with a clear separation between the natural realm of water and the social contexts within which it is used, represented and controlled. With its emphasis the separation between the natural and the social, modernity has robbed water of its history and geography, severed people’s connections with sources of a vital element and constrained our imaginative capacities to learn and ‘think with’ water. ‘Social natures’ is one aspect of a revolution in the way people know and represent water. There is a turn away from the presumed and established fundamental separation between the natural realm of water and the social contexts within which it is used, represented and controlled.

Tapping the Turn explores the nature of this revolution.

With more than 60 oral and poster presentations, 3 workshops and 1 book launch on offer over the 2 days, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and professionals interested in the social dimensions of water will be challenged and stimulated by the material presented.
Abstracts, draft conference program and steering committee information at http://tappingtheturn.org/