SA Sundowner June 2024 - Water and Culture

The Young Water Professionals of the SA AWA Branch are excited to invite you to their third 2024 SA Sundowner event, returning to Electra House, to Meet the YWP Committee over an informal knowledge sharing discussion, and Networking over after-work drinks on Thursday 20th June 2024 from 5:15pm to 6:30pm.

Topic – Water & Culture

Theme: Managing toxins and making water “safe”: Understanding consumer behaviour and water quality fears in urban South Asia.

Overview: In this short talk, Associate Professor Georgina Drew will discuss the rise of “chemo-uncertainty” in urban India and Nepal alongside the growth of expensive middle-income household water management and filtration practices. The main emphasis will be on how anthropologically acquired insights can illuminate consumer perceptions, behaviours, and fears about potable water, which are influenced by cultural norms and widespread concerns about persistent exposure to food- and water-borne toxins.

Household water management is highly emotional, as the talk will underscore, and those emotions drive millions to billions in water technology purchasing decisions

Speaker:

Georgina Drew is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Adelaide. She is the author of River Dialogues: Hindu Faith and the Political Ecology of Dams on the Sacred Ganga (University of Arizona Press, 2017) along with over 45 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She serves as the Co-Director of the Food and Water Futures Program of the Stretton Institute of Public Policy and is also the Co-Chair of the Research Portfolio in the School of Social Sciences.

Recent publications from Georgina include the following:- 

“Post-Crisis Risk Management: Water, Community, and Adaptation in a South Australian Irrigation District”. 2024. Bill Skinner, Douglas K. Bardsley, and Georgina Drew. Ecology and Society, https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol29/iss1/art10/

“Nudging the Reef: Underwater Care and Assisted Recovery in Marine Restoration.” 2024. Ella Vallelonga and Georgina Drew. Theorizing the Contemporary (Cultural Anthropology): https://culanth.org/fieldsights/nudging-the-reef

“Managing Toxins and Making Water ‘Safe’: Consumer Buffering Practices in Contexts of Chemo-Uncertainty.” 2023. Georgina Drew. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14442213.2023.2243904

“Moral Economies for Water: A Framework for Analyzing Norms of Justice, Economic Behaviour, and Social Enforcement in the Context of Water Inequality.” 2022. Melissa Beresford, Amber Wutich, Dustin Garrick, and Georgina Drew. WIREs WATER. https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1627

“Half a Flood’s No Good”: Flooding, Viticulture, and Hydrosocial Terroir in a South Australian Wine Region. 2022. Bill Skinner, Georgina Drew, and Douglas K. Bardsley. Agriculture & Human Values. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-022-10355-w

The ‘Drive and Talk’ as Ethnographic Method. 2022. Georgina Drew, Bill Skinner, and Douglas K. Bardsley. Anthropology Today.https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12725

Water Insecurity and Patchwork Adaptability in Bangalore’s Low-income Neighbourhoods. 2021. Georgina Drew, Deepika M.G., Amalendu Jyotishi, and Shruthi Suripeddi. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02508060.2021.1963031?src=

Coca-Cola and the Moral Economy of Rural Development in India. 2021. Georgina Drew. South Asia: A Journal of South Asian Studies. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00856401.2021.1899793

Timescapes of Himalayan Hydropower: Promises, Project Life Cycles, and Precarities. 2020. Austin Lord, Georgina Drew, and Mabel Gergan. WIREs Water. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1469

Slow Infrastructures in Times of Crisis: Unworking Convenience and Speed. 2020. Matt Barlow and Georgina Drew. Postcolonial Studies. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2020.1804105

Political Ecologies of Water Capture in an Indian 'Smart City'. 2020. Georgina Drew. Ethnos. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00141844.2018.1541918

Sundowner events are open to anyone with an interest in the water industry, and present an opportunity to meet with other professionals, regardless of experience levels. This is a free event where you can grab your drink(s) of choice, however, please register your attendance. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Event Details
When: Thursday 20th June 2024
Venue: PMQ Electra House Hotel, 131 King William St. Adelaide
Time: 5:15pm for a 5:30pm start. Event concludes at 6:30pm
What: Drinks over the bar and light meals available for purchase

We really look forward to seeing you in person!