Patrick Bresnihan is an IRC post-doctoral scholar mentored by Eamonn Slater Maynooth University Department of Sociology. He has just been awarded a Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Award travel grant, which are given to postdoc and early career researchers.
His work looks at neoliberal responses to ecological crises and new articulations of the commons. His current research focuses on the ongoing challenge of providing water services, particularly in cities in the Global North and South, and the new configurations of power and antagonism that are emerging in response. In general, what has been emerging is the blurring of the traditional distinction between the public and private spheres as, on the one hand, national governments have become dependent on global financial institutions for investment in infrastructure and, on the other, self-organized, grassroots initiatives have arisen to provide vital services, such as water, autonomously. These latter have been described as new forms of commons.
His research project will involve traveling to Bolivia and Brazil to develop ongoing theoretical and empirical work on the political ecology of water and the organization of the commons. He will spend three weeks in Cochabamba, Bolivia, hosted by Marcela Olivera, coordinater of Red Vida, a water justice network. Having resisted the privatization of water services in 2000 and seen the rise to power of Morales on a socially and ecologically progressive policy platform, it is interesting to examine how the urgent challenge of providing safe, clean water and sanitation for growing urban populations is now being addressed and how. Patrick will be looking at the political ecology of water in Bolivia with particular focus on the different ways water systems are being organized and defended at a community-level within Cochabamba.
From Bolivia, Patrick will fly to Brazil to participate in an international workshop and week-long, intensive research retreat under the general title of 'Emergent Authorities and the Making of the Common' hosted by the Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Northeast Brazil and co-organized by the Authority Research Network.
Well done!